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Vol. 1. 



No. 1. 



STATE CENTENNIAL 

SOUVENIR NUMBER 

AND PROGRAM^ 

1821 — 1921 







Published under auspices of 
MISSOURI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

KANSAS CITY, MO. 

MISSOURI DAY, OCTOBER THIRD 



PRICE $1.00 



r ^f-t^i 



GS 



MISSOURI VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS 

President John Barber White 

Vice-President.... John F. Richards 

Vice-President W. Malcom Lowry 

Vice-President Louis W. Shouse 

Secretary Nettie Thompson Grove 

Treasurer Henry C. Flower 

Financial Secretary H. B. Leavens 

Curator Emma S. White 

Audit^ William B. Davis 

DIRECTORS 
R. A. Long T. M. James, Jr. 

Charles S. Keith Charles R. Pence 

Ford F. Harvey Purd B. Wright 

Wa.lter S. Dickey Mrs. Roma J. Womall 

William T. Johnson Mrs. Hugh Miller 

H. B. Leavens Edwin R. Weeks 

Editor Nettie Thompson Grove 

Publisher and Business Manager Emma S. White 

Price $L00 



TABLE OP COPfTENTS. Page 

A Journey to Missouri in 1822 97 

Birthday of Missouri, The (A Poem) 127 

Borland, William Patterson (Biographical Sketch) 39 

Centennial of the Admission of Missouri, The. . . .; 43 

Condition of Missouri at the Time of the Louisiana Purchase, The. . . .104 

Fashionable Pearl Street 109 

Genealogy of the Gamble Family 124 

Gifts and Loans to the Missouri Valley Historical Society 

Inside Back Cover 

Gilpin, Major William — ^The Prophet of Kansas City 115 

Jackson County's First Court House Built in 1827 122 

Missouri Merchant One Hundred Years Ago 5 

Missouri Day 2 

Missouri, The Mother of Empires 44 

Missouri Valley Historical Society — Officers and Directors 

Inside Front Cover 

Fort Osage 56 

Life at the Fort in Early Days 74 

McCoy, The Reverend Isaac 85 

Farms Owned by Isaac McCoy 90 

Isaac McCoy's Successor 93 

IVill of Isaac McCoy 93 

One Hundred Years on the Missouri River 21 

Proclamation of Statehood, The 1 

PRCMJRAM — Miiisouri Day, October Third t 130 

Kanftas City Centennial Association 1821-1921 | 136 

Some Reminiscences of the Wyandottes 119 

ILLUSTRATIONS. Page 

Borland, Hon. William P 40 

Campbell Home, "Fashionable Pearl Street" 113 

Chick Mansion on Pearl Street, The 100 

Chick, Washington Henry 96 

Gilpin, William 114 

Independence Square, 1850 123 

Jackson County's First Court House 122 

Keel Boat, Used in Early Days on Missouri River 78 

McCoy, Christiana Polk 84 

McCoy, Rev. Isaac. C 84 

McNair, Alexander (First Governor of the State) 2 

Sibley, Mary Easton 74 

Sibley, Major Geo. C 74 

Steamboat — John D. Perry 28 

Steamboat Trapper 24 

Stevens, Walter B , 20 

Town of Sibley ::Plat of) 71 

White, John Barber 4 



't. 




By the President of the United States: A Proclamation 

WHEREAS, the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the 
2d day of Mai'ch last, entitled, "Resolution providing for the admission of the 
State of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," did determine and 
declare "that Missouri should be admitted into this Union on an equal footing" 
with the original states in all respects whatever upon the fundamental condition 
that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the 
constitution submitted on the part of said state to congress shall never be 
construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that no law shall be passed 
in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the states of this 
Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and im- 
munities to which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United 
States. Provided, that the legislature of said state, by a solemn public act, 
shall declare the assent of the said state to the said fundamental condition, 
and shall transmit to the President of the United States on or before the first 
Monday in November next an authentic copy of said act, upon the receipt 
whereof the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact, whereupon, 
and without further proceeding on the part of congress, the admission of the 
said state into this Union shall be considered as complete"; and 
WHEREAS, by a solemn act of the assembly of said state of Missouri, passed 
on the 26th of June, in the present year, entitled, "A solemn public act de- 
claring the assent of this state to the fundamental condition contained in a 
resolution passed by the congress of the United States providing for the ad- 
mission of the state of Missouri into the Union on a certain condition," an 
authentic copy whereof has been communicated to me, it is solemnly and 
publicly enacted and declared that that state has assented, and does assent, 
that the fourth clause of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the 
constitution of said state "shall never be construed to authorize the passage 
of any law, and that no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which 
any citizen of either of the United States shall be excluded from the enjoyment 
of any of the privileges and immunities to which such citizens are entitled 
under the Constitution of the United States." 

NOW, therefore, I, James Monroe, President of the United States, in pursu- 
ance of the resolution of congress aforesaid, have issued this, my proclamation, 
announcing the fact that the said state of Missouri has assented to the funda- 
mental condition required by the resolution of congress aforesaid, whereupon 
the admission of the said state of Missouri into this Union is declared to be 
complete. 

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States of 
America to be affixed to these presents, and signed the same with my hand. 

Done at the city of Washington the 10th day of August, A. D. 1821, and 
of the independence of the said United States of America the forty-sixth. 

By the President: JAMES MONROE. 

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, Secretary of State. 

—1— 




Alexander McMair, First Governor of the State 
Born About 1176 - - - Died March 18, 1826 



MISSOURI DAY. 

The idea of a "Missouri Day" originated with Mrs. Anna 
Brosius Korn of Trenton, Missouri. The value of such a day for 
the purpose of "binding Missourians together at home and abroad," 
first occurred to Mrs. Korn while a non-resident of the State. 
Returning home, she drafted resolutions for the placing of a "Mis- 
souri Day" upon the State calendar. The fall of the year was se- 
lected as the season and October as the month, because, as Mark 
Twain expressed it: "Missouri is at her best in October." Then 
too, it was in the month of October, 1826, that the Missouri State 
Capital was established in Jefferson City. These resolutions 
brought before the various patriotic societies and other organiza- 
tions of the State, met with enthusiastic approval from every 
quarter. 

In January, 1915, Mrs. Korn drafted a bill, which with amend- 
ment, read: "An act providing that the first Monday in October 
of each and every year shall be known and designated 'Missouri 
day.'" This bill passed the House January 26th, the Senate on 
March 19th, and was signed by Governor E. W. Major, March 23rd. 
Thus on March 23, 1915, "Missouri Day" became an established 
fact. . ^ , • : • 




JoKn Barber WKite 



The Missouri Merchant One Hundred 

Tears Ago. 

JOHN BARBER WHITE2. 

Trade and commercialism were the chief factors in drawing 
the first settlers to Missouri. The attraction of the immense 
possibilities in fur trading caused the early homes and settlements 
along the rivers and in the valleys of Missouri, and led to the 
establishment of trading posts at St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve and 
other places during the Spanish occupation. 

I am indebted to that great Missouri historian, Col, Louis 
Houck, in his Spanish Regime in Missouri, for many of these 
historical facts, which he has recovered from the dim past and 
which he has dug up and preserved for future generations. 

He mentions the oldest settlement, Ste. Genevieve. Among 
the early merchants and traders there was a Louis Lambert, who 
was the wealthiest and most important. Louis Viviat, Francis 
Datchurnt and Louis Duchonquette were also prominent traders, 
as were the Valles and Henry Peyroux de la Condreniere, Post 
Commandants, and Walter Kennedy, brother of Patrick Kennedy 
of Kaskaskia, a noted English-speaking trader at Ste. Genevieve. 
Jeduthen Kendall had a tannery and made boots and shoes there 
nearly a hundred years ago. 

It was John Nicholas Maclot, who had once suffered impris- 
onment in the Bastile suspected of republican sentiments, who, 
when released, came to Philadelphia and was a merchant there 
for several years. He came to St. Louis with a stock of goods, a 
hundred years ago, and later with Moses Austin, a Connecticut 
pioneer, who was working lead mines in Potosi, went to Hercu- 
laneum on the bluff of the river and established a shot tower. 

Mr. Houck mentions Moses Austin as a big representative of 
commercialism in the enterprises and mine operations in the dis- 
trict. In 1820 he followed his son, Stephen F., to Texas. He 
succeeded in obtaining from the local government a recommenda- 
tion permitting him to establish on Texas soil three hundred 
families from the United States. He died in 1821, aged fifty- 
seven years, just as he had received word that the Spanish gov- 
ernment had approved of his colonization plans. 

Laclede as the representative of Maxent and Company was 



iThis address was delivered Janoary S, 1918. before the Missouri State His- 
torical Society. Columbia, Mo., at its Centennial celebration of Missouri's peti- 
tion for statehood. 

—5— 



sent up the river, not to establish a town, but to trade in furs; 
but the town grew up around him. 

See Houck's chapter on St. Louis for a record of all the big 
traders, including the Chouteaus, Martigny, Cerre, Clay Morgan, 
Manuel de Lisa, James Mackey and others. Lisa helped establish 
the Oregon Trail and was the most prominent man of 1807-8 
engaged in the fur trade of that period. In the winter of 1808-9 
he helped organize the Missouri Fur Company. He made ex- 
tended voyages far up the Missouri, as far as Kansas City and 
beyond, as did also James Mackey and Gen. Ashley ; the latter an 
early explorer of the Rocky Mountains. 

Read what Houck says about Col. George Morgan, who was 
so closely connected with the early history of New Madrid. 
He brought many Americans into what is now Missouri. One of 
these was Christopher Haynes of Pennsylvania, who was Colonel 
in the Revolutionary Army in Westmoreland County. Another 
was Moses Shelby from Kentucky, a brother of Gen. Isaac Shelby, 
who came with other Kentuckians. Dr. Dorsey and Dr. Richard 
James Waters were merchants and traders in New Madrid, and 
Louis Lorimer from Canada established a trading post at Cape 
Girardeau. Daniel Steinbeck and Frederick Steinbeck, Maj. 
Thomas W. Waters, a Revolutionary soldier from South Carolina, 
and others, also established trading posts at Cape Girardeau. 

In Scharf's History of St. Louis is mentioned the merchant 
Francis Vigo of the mercantile firm of Vigo and Yosti, who ren- 
dered personal service in the Revolutionary War and sacrificed 
his fortune in redeeming continental paper to the extent of four 
thousand pounds.- Also see Walter B. Steven's Missouri The 
Center State. This gives the wonderful exploits of George 
Rogers Clark and his three hundred and fifty Virginians and 
Kentuckians in 1778 and 1779.^ Clark wrote from St. Louis July, 

1778, that "Our friends the Spaniards, are doing everything in 
their power to convince me of their friendship." 

Francis Vigo of St. Louis was of great help in the Kaskaskia 
and Vincennes expeditions. Stevens says that Clark made re- 
peated expeditions to St. Louis before he started in February, 

1779, across the Illinois prairies. He had raised in St. Louis 
nearly twenty thousand dollars for his little army. Father 
Gibault, the priest who alternated between St. Louis and Kaskas- 
kia, gave his savings of years — one thousand dollars — and he and 
his Kaskaskia parishioners knelt and prayed for American success 
at Vincennes. It was Col. Vigo, a citizen of St. Louis, who gave 
to Clark the information which enabled him to capture Hamilton 



2Vol. I, p. 191. 
Vol. II, p. 538. 



-6— 



and Vincennes. Father Gibault was in Kaskaskia and had the 
currency there when Commander Clark took this British Post on 
July 4th, 1778. So it was St. Louis merchants and St. Louis 
citizens who helped to make success in the Revolutionary War. 
Gabriel Cerre should be mentioned as another prominent St. Louis 
merchant who helped to finance General George Rogers Clark's 
expedition against Vincennes in the Revolutionary War. 

The free and unrestricted exercise of trade and commerce 
throughout the world is stimulating to the civilization of the 
world. The exchange of commodities of one country with that 
of another brings the products of each country, as well as the 
best in art and literature, to our very doors. The world's devel- 
opment has largely followed the trade routes of commerce. The 
first efforts in the struggles of life are put forth in the struggle 
for bread; first for the absolute necessities and later for life's 
comforts and luxuries. And it is this development of all routes 
of travel that has enlarged our civilization in enlarging our wants 
and needs for the products of other climes and other peoples. 
While trade and commerce with the nations of the world have 
brought their national and international blessings to the inhab- 
itants of the world, they have also brought strife and war. It is 
the selfish struggle of the infant in takng its playmates' play- 
things developed in the grown man and in growing nations and 
group of men, for men are but children of large gro\\i;h. Our 
present war is an instance. 

As infants and as grown ups, we often know best the law 
of might; but later we learn the easier and fairer methods of 
trade ethics and the wholesome consideration of the rights of 
others, and a national diplomacy that is not born of deceit. It 
was trade, the search for treasure, that brought Europeans to 
our shores and their object was development through exploita- 
tion ; exploitation of land and of the people. 

Not so with some of the early Missourians who came over 
as far back as 1703 and landed in New Orleans with some French 
savants and scientific scholars, working under the authority of 
the French Government, and proceeded up the Great River as far 
as the present site of Kansas City. They came both for the ma- 
terial and spiritual benefit of the inhabitants. They were of the 
intellectual and spiritual type of men like the well-known Father 
De Smet, who came over a hundred years later. Their records are 
still on file in France. They show from the maps they made that 
they stopped for a time at what is now Jefferson City and went 
farther up to the mouth of the Kaw. Theirs was not a mercantile 
exploitation, but was wholly a magnanimous and Christian mis- 
sion for the elevation of man. 

—7— 



See an address given before the Missouri Valley Historical 
Society in Kansas City, February 7, 1914, by Father William J. 
Dalton. I also wish to acknowledge the historical data collected 
for me by the efficient secretary of that Society, Mrs. Nettie 
Thompson Grove. 

First comes the explorer, who may become a commercial 
exploiter in laying the foundation for a future permanent and 
growing development in civilization. He helped in the planting, 
but the spirit of love and sacrifice is necessary to intelligent na- 
tional growth. 

Comparatively few may know that the great American nat- 
uralist, John James Audubon, was a merchant in Ste. Genevieve.^ 
He was born near New Orleans, Louisiana, May 4, 1780. He was 
educated in Paris, but returned to the United States in eastern 
Pennsylvania about 1798. He married in 1808 and first became 
a merchant in Louisville, Kentucky, and then removed to Hender- 
sonville. After making unsuccessful efforts in mercantile busi- 
ness at Hendersonville, Audubon and his partner. Rosier, decided 
to remove their business to Ste. Genevieve on the Mississippi 
River. 

"Putting our goods, which consisted of three hundred barrels of whiskey, 
sundry dry goods, and powder, on board a keel-boat, my partner, my clerk 
and self departed in a severe snow storm. The boat was new, staunch, and 
well trimmed, and had a cabin in her bow. A long steering oar, made of the 
trunk of a slender tree about sixty feet in length, and shaped at its outeri 
extremity like the fin of a dolphin, helped to steer the boat, while the four 
oars from the bow impelled her along, when going with the current, about 
five miles an hour. . . . The third day we entered Cash Creek, a very 
small stream, but having deep water and a good harbor. Here I met Count 
De Munn, who was also in a boat like ours, and bound also for Ste. Genevieve. 
Here we learned that the Mississippi was covered with floating ice of a 
thickness dangerous to the safety of our craft, and indeed that it was im- 
possible to ascend the river against it. . . . We arrived in safety at Ste. 
Genevieve and there found a favorable market. Our whiskey was especially 
welcome, and what we had paid twenty-five cents a gallon for brought us 
Two Dollars. Ste. Genevieve was then an old French town, twenty miles below 
St. Louis, not so large, as dirty, and I was not half so pleased with the time 
spent there as with that spent in the Tawapatee Bottom."' 

We read that Audubon was not pleased with Ste. Genevieve 
and longed to be back with his young wife in Kentucky. He sold 
out to Rosier. It develops that Audubon's clerk was named 
Nathaniel Pope. 

In 1793 two flouring mills were established, one at New 
Madrid and one at Ste. Genevieve, with the purpose of promoting 
agricultural settlements and commerce along the Missouri and 
Mississippi. 



4See Life of Audubon, edited by iiis widow. 
SIbid., p. 35. 



The early mercantile history of Missouri and of its merchants 
is so great that one cannot cover the subject in much detail in a 
paper for an evening-'s reading. The best that can be done is to 
g-ive names and authorities. Reference may also be had to the 
following : 

Missourmyis One Hundred Years Ago, by the Hon. Walter 
B. Stevens, President of the State Historical Society of Missouri, 
1917. This is a wonderfully interesting booklet of about fifty 
pages and should be read by every Missourian. 

Chittenden in his monumental work on the History of ttie 
Fur Trade is the best authority on the close relation existing 
between the early Missouri merchant and fur trader and the 
Indians. He has reproduced many of the old letters and diaries 
of the men of those days that are invaluable sources of informa- 
tion. These extracts from a letter of Thomas Forsyth to Lewis 
Cass, dated St. Louis, October 24, 1831, reveal the widespread 
character of the trade and the ascendancy maintained by the 
American Fur Company in this field.*^ 

"The fur trade of the countries bordering on the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers, as high up the former river as above the Falls of St. Anthony, and the 
later as the Sioux establishment some distance above Council Bluffs, is carried 
on now in the same manner as it ever has been. This trade continues to be 
monopolized by the American Fur Company, who have divided the whole of 
the Indian country into departments, as follows: Farnham and Davenport have 
all the country of the Sauk and Fox Indians . . . also the Iowa Indians, 
who live at or near the [Black] Snake Hills on the Missouri River [St. Joseph].' 
. . . Mr. Cabanne (of the American Fur Company) has in his division all 
the Indians on the Missouri as high as a point above the Council Bluffs, in- 
cluding the Pawnee Indians of the interior, in about a southwest direction 
from his establishment Mr. Auguste P. Chouteau has within his department 
all the Indians of the Osage country and others who may visit his establish- 
ment, such as the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and other Indians. Messrs. Mc- 
Kenzie, Laidlaw and Lamont have in their limits the Sioux Indians of thes 
Missouri, and as high up the river as they choose to send or go. The Ameri- 
can Fur Company brings on their goods annually in the spring season to 
this city [St. Louis] from New York, which are then sent up the Missouri 
to the different posts in a small steamboat." At those places the furs are 
received on board and brought down to St. Louis, where they are opened, 
counted, weighed, repacked, and shipped by steamboats to New Orleans, 
thence on board of vessels to New York, where the furs are unpacked, made 
up into bales, and sent to the best markets in Europe, except some of the 
finest (particularly otter skins) which are sent to China." 

"The goods of Mr. A. P. Chouteau are transported by water in keel- 
boats as high up the Osage River as the water will admit; from thence they 
are carried in wagons to his establishment in the interior of the country.^ 
In the spring of the year when the Arkansaw is high Mr. Chouteau sends his 
furs down that river to New Orleans, from whence thev are shipped to New 
York. 



^Chittenden, III. 926 f. 

TThls was as late as 1831. Before 1819 there were no steamboats on the Mis.^ourl 

SIbld., 928 f. 

—9— 



"By the time that the Indians have gathered their corn, the traders are 
prepared with their goods to give them credits. The articles of merchan- 
dise which the traders take with them to the Indian country are as follows: 
viz., blankets, 3 points, 2%, 2, IVz, 1; common blue stroud; ditto red; blue 
cloth; scarlet do; calicoes; domestic cottons; rifles and shot guns, gunpowder, 
flints, and lead; knives of different kinds; looking-glasses; vermillion and 
verdigris; copper, brass and tin kettles; beaver and muskrat traps; fine and 
common bridles and spurs; silver works; needles and thread; wampum; horses; 
tomahawks and half axes, etc. All traders at the present day give credit to 
the Indians in the same manner as has been the case for the last sixty or 
eighty years. That is to say, the articles which are passed on credit are 
given at very high prices. Formerly, when the opposition and competition in 
the Indian trade was great, the traders would sell in the spring of the year, 
payment down, for less than one-half of the prices at which they charged the 
same articles to the same Indians on credit the preceding autumn. This was 
sometimes the occasion of broils and quarrels between the traders and the 
Indians, particularly when the latter made bad hunts. 

"The following are the prices charged for some articles given on credit 
to the Sauk and Fox Indians, whose present population exceeds six thousand 
souls and who are compelled to take goods, etc., of the traders at their very 
high prices, because they cannot do without them, for if the traders do not 
supply their necessary wants and enable them to support themselves, they 
would literally starve. An Indian takes on credit from a trader in the autumn: 

A 3-point blanket at $10.00 

A rifle gun 30.00 

A pound of gunpowder 4.00 

Total Indian dollars $44.00 

The 3-point blanket will cost in England, say, 16 shillings per pair. 

1 blanket at 100 per cent is equal to $3.52 

A rifle gun costs in this place from $12 to 13.00 

A pound of gunpowder .20 

$16.72 
Add 25 per cent for expenses 4.18 



$20.90 
Therefore, according to this calculation (which I know is correct), if the 
Indian pays all his debt, the trader is a gainer of more than 100 per cent. 
But it must be here observed that the trader takes for a dollar a large 
buckskin, which may weigh six pounds, or two doeskins, four muskrats, four 
or five raccoons, or he allows the Indian three dollars for an otterskin, or 
two dollars a pound for beaver. And in my opinion the dollar which the 
trader receives of the Indian is not estimated too high at 125 cents, and 
perhaps in some instances at 150 cents. 

In the spring the trader lowers his price on all goods, and will sell a 
3-point blanket for five dollars, and other articles in proportion as he receives 
the furs down in payment, and as the Indians always resei've the finest and 
best furs for the spring trade. In the autumn of every year the trader care- 
fully avoids giving credit to the Indians on any costly articles, such as silver- 
works, wampum, scarlet cloth, fine bridles, etc., unless it be to an Indian who 
he knows will pay all his debts; in which case he will allow the Indian on 
credit everything he wishes. Traders always prefer giving on credit gun- 
powder, flints, lead, knives, tomahawks, hoes, domestic cotton, etc., which they 

—10— 



do at the rate of 300 or 400 per cent, and if one-fourth of the prices of those 
articles be paid, he is amply paid. After all the trade is over in the spring 
it is found that some of the Indians have paid all for which they were 
credited, others one-half, one-third, one-fourth, and some nothing at all; but 
taken altogether, the trader has received on an average one-half of the whole 
amount of Indian dollars for which he gave credit the preceding autumn, and 
calls it a tolerable business; that is, if the furs bear a good price the trader 
loses nothing, but if any fall in the price takes place he loses money. 

"The American Fur Company ought to be satisfied with the Indians, for 
they have monopolized all the trade, especially at the posts before mentioned. 
There is a man now in this city who receives annually a sum from that com- 
pany on condition that he will not enter the Indian country. They have also 
monopolized the whole trade on the frontiers, together with the Indian an- 
nuities, and everything an Indian has to sell, yet they claim a large amount 
for debts due them for non-payment of credits given to the Indians at different 
periods." 

"I visited this country as early as April, 1798, and in many conversations 
I had with the French people of this place, all that they could say on the 
subject of the Indian trade was that there were many Indian nations in- 
habiting the country bordering on the Missouri River who were exceedingly 
cruel to all the white people that went among them." 

After General Wm. Ashley had some trouble with the Indians, 
the traders began to employ hunters to secure furs and this prac- 
tice grew rather than depending on the Indians for them, accord- 
ing to the original method. 

As an indication of the extent of fur trading business it may 
be stated that when the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest 
Company consolidated, nine hundred clerks were dismissed.^ 

In 1762, the Louisiana Fur Company was organized by 
Maxent,'' Laclede and Company under charter granted by Gov. 
General D'Abadie for the purpose of trade in fur and minerals. 

On the third day of November, 1763, a trading expedition 
under Laclede, with a large stock of merchandise likely to appeal 
to Indian taste, reached Ste. Genevieve, where a short stop was 
made ; then continued to Fort de Chartres on the Illinois side before 
continuing to their original objective point, the mouth of the 
Missouri. 

However, after a few weeks' rest at the Illinois post, Laclede, 
en route, was impressed by "a. bluff on the western shore of the 
Mississippi at a sweeping curve of the river, on which now stands 
the city of St. Louis .... and determined to establish here the set- 
tlement and post he desired."^" 

Laclede placed the active establishing of this settlement in the 
hands of a youth, Auguste Chouteau (his stepson), who later be- 
came a leading merchant and trader of that place. He was the 
first of the family whose name became associated with this great 
west. 



itlbid., 933. 

lODavis and Durrie's Hist. Mo., 14. 



—11— 



This story of merchandising- in early days is told : A "typical 
Missourian" was hanging about a slave dealer's stall one day when 
the dealer asked him what he wanted. He replied that he wished 
to buy a negro. Making a selection from the samples on display, 
he was told by the slave dealer that the negro was valued at 
$500.00 but that, "according- to the custom of the country," he 
could have one year's time in which to pay the bill. But the ques- 
tion of debt so troubled the Missourian that he exclaimed : "No, 
No! I would rather pay you Six Hundred right now and be done 
with it!" Whereupon the slave dealer very obligingly remarked, 
"Very well, anything to oblige!" thereby relieving his customer's 
mind and at the same time adding $100 to his own pocket.^^ 

At the time of the cession Ste. Genevieve was a more im- 
portant place (it is reasonable to believe) than St. Louis, from 
a commercial point of view. At this time "the principal St. Louis 
merchants and traders were Auguste Chouteau, Pierre Chouteau, 
Manuel Lisa, Labadie, and Sarpy, Glamorgan, McCune & Co., and 
Messrs. Hortz, Pratte, Gratiot, Tayon, Lacompte, Papin, Cabanne, 
Alvarez, Lebaume, and Soulard."^- 

"The merchant of those times, it must be remembered, was a 
different personage, in all his business relations, from the mer- 
chant of today.^' His warehouse occupied only a few feet;^* his 
merchandise usually was stored in a large box or chest, and was 
only brought to view when a customer appeared. Sugar, coffee, 
tobacco, blankets, salt, guns, dry goods, etc., were all consigned to 
the same general receptacle." 

"Imported luxuries, such as tea, brought enormous prices, be- 
cause of the length of time involved in mercantile transactions 
* * * Sugar was $2.00 a pound, and tea could be purchased at the 
same price; other articles being sold at prices just as high in 
proportion. Tea was comparatively unknown to the masses." 
These prices prevailed in St. Louis according to Davis & Durrie 
probably at the time of the cession of the territory to the United 
States. It was but a few years until more normal prices prevailed, 
according to letter, one of a series, owned by the Missouri Valley 
Historical Society. 

This letter, dated St. Louis, December 29, 1820, is addressed 
to Nathaniel Jacobs, Gatskill, N. Y., and is signed by J. Klein. It 
quotes the following prices : fine flour, five dollars a barrel ; pork 
and beef, three dollars a hundred; butter, twenty-five cents a 
pound; lard, ten cents; coffee, thirty-seven and a half cents; red 
onions, often four dollars a bushel, etc. Also sugar was twelve and 



lllbid., 34. 
I21bid., 35. 
I31bid., 37. 
l4Brackenridge says his store was usually in his own home. — Nettie T. Grove. 

—12— 



a half cents a pound, tea one dollar and sixty cents, and salt from 
one dollar to one dollar and a half for a bushel of fifty pounds. 

Scharf in his Historij of St. Louis writes of the old St. Louis 
merchants as follows :^^ 

"Its early traders, from the very first, undertook extensive operations 
and embraced wide areas in their transactions, employing not only capital, 
but the best men v^^ho could be found. Laclede had his partners in New 
Orleans, and the. most of his time was spent in establishing trading posts up 
the Arkansas, the St. Francis, and the Red rivers. The Chouteaus spent 
years among the Indians, acquiring such a familiarity with their language 
and manners and customs that they were sought after by the government as 
Indian agents and interpreters. In addition to the posts which Laclede estab- 
lished, they had stations on the Osage, the Upper Missouri, the Des Moines, 
and on Lake Michigan. Vigo traded from St. Louis to Vincennes, thence to 
Montreal and Detroit, and back again to New Orleans. Gratiot traded to 
Prairie du Chien and New Orleans, and went to England in the regular 
routine of business for his partners. Manuel Lisa was an explorer as much 
as a fur-trader, and he was as ready to fight his rivals and the Indians as 
to buy their peltries." 

"Charles Gratiot and Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, indeed, were mer- 
chants such as sometimes do not appear more than once in a century. The 
former, for all he did business in Cahokia, and had lawsuits with Sanguinet 
of St. Louis, was better known in New York and Philadelphia than in the 
latter town, and better known in Paris, London, and Geneva than on this 
continent. ... As a business man, Pierre Chouteau is said to have had no 
rival in the valley of the Mississippi for forty years. The very genius of 
commerce inspired him, and the plans of this Indian trader, who got his 
earliest training among the Osages, on the borders of Kansas, reached out 
wide like the arms of the Mississippi River. . . . Men of this sort ought 
to have been able to build up their own town, since they built up others 
when it suited their business. Note this of the founding of New Madrid by 
Cerre."!'"' 

Cerre sent two penniless French adventurers down the river 
to find a suitable place for placing- a trading post. 

The first point deemed advantageous was a large Delaware 
Indian town where New Madrid now stands. Mr. Cerre accepted 
their report, erecting the building and stocking it with a large 
amount of goods. Some years later the son of one these adventur- 
ers reports doing $60,000 or $70,000 worth of business annually in 
furs for Pierre Chouteau at this same trading post.^' 

"This business it was which established St. Louis at once, gave the town 
stability, and the leading inhabitants incentives to enterprise and control of 
wealth. Hunters found regular employment and good pay in the little trading- 
post town, and they profited by it. The spot, indeed, had been a hunter's 
paradise from the first, as well as a fur-trader's goal. . . . The hunters 
went forth from St. Louis to gather furs and peltries for the traders of St. 
Louis, and from Laclede's day up to 1830 the town was the general rendezvous 
of hunters and fur traders, and the Montreal of the Mississippi, and the depot 



iSVol. I, p. 287. 

isCerre was a St. I»uis Merchant, originaUy from Kaskaskia. 

nScharf. I, 288. 

—13— 



of all the basin of the great rivers emptying into that river betvi^een the Min- 
nesota and the Rio del Norte" '* 

"After the demise of this company [The Missouri Fur Company] the 
Chouteaus, Lisa, and Astor formed an alliance under the name and style of 
the American Fur Company, the successor of the Missouri and the Rocky 
Mountain Companies; and when Astor withdrew^, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., became 
himself the American Fur Company. This company continued the work of the 
two companies which it had succeeded, opened up and explored the Rocky 
Mountains and Western waters, and for thirty years held a monopoly of the 
fur trade south of the vast regions ranged over by the Hudson's Bay Company. 
The firm did business on a very large scale, and at one time owned and 
maintained five forts, all built by themselves in the heart of the Indian 
country — Forts Sarpy, Benton, Union, Pierre, and Berthold. . . ." i'' 

"This trade was very valuable. The average returns on goods sent out 
was 100 per cent in peltries, and this by no means represented the actual 
profits, for the goods were valued at their selling price in St. Louis, not 
their cost, and the peltries at their currency value in St Louis. But red 
cloth that might retail at 5s. a yard in St. Louis probably did not cost the 
companies more than 3s., including freight, interest, and insurance; and on 
the other hand, beaver worth $2.00 a pound in St. Louis might fetch twice as 
much in London, and five times as much in Canton." -" 

It is easily judged, therefore, the per cent of profit upon 
which the St. Louis merchant builded his fortune. 

"Brackenridge, in his 'Views of Louisiana,' notes the fact that in 1810 
the Indian trade of St. Louis with the Osages alone was worth $30,000, or 
nearly $6 per capita, the outlay in goods being $20,000 — a profit of 50 per 
cent measured in furs. With the Cheyennes the trade was expected to yield 
a profit of 100 per cent, and so also with the Poncas and Arickarees. The 
trade with the Crows was counted on to return three for one, and that with 
the Pastanounas fifteen for four. The trade at Arkansas Post with the 
Chickasaws and Cherokees yielded five for two, and that with the various 
bands of Sioux four for one." -^ 

"Fur was the currency of St. Louis from the days of Laclede very nearly 
until Missouri became a State and the town an incorporated city. Other 
things were taken in exchange and barter — beeswax, whiskey, potash, maple- 
sugar, salt, wood, feathers, bear's oil, venison, fish, lead, but fur was the 
currency and standard of value, the representative of and equivalent to the 
livres tournois of hard metal. The only small coin consisted of Mexican dol- 
lars, cut with a chisel into four or five pieces — 'bits.' A pound of shaved deer- 
skin of good quality represented about twice the value of the livre, and a 
pound of beaver, otter, and ermine represented so many pounds of deerskin. 
A 'pack' of skins had a definite weight, and thus trade and computation were 
both easy. Checks and notes were drawn against them, deposits were made of 
furs and packs, and on the whole they constituted a much better and more 
uniform currency than the staple tobacco which was at one time the only 
circulating medium of Virginia and Maryland. 'Bons' were a species of order 
or note for goods, redeemable in peltries, which, when signed with the name 
of any responsible merchant or trader, had full currency in local and general 
trade. Practically, they were certificates of deposit, but convertible or ex- 
changeable into any other equivalents in the course of trade and barter. Next 



isibid. 
I9lbid., 289. 
20lbid. 
2llbld. 



—14— 



to the peltry, which had a regular currency and pretty near a uniform value 
from Mackinaw, Detroit, and Prairie du Chien among the French settlements 
all the way to New Orleans and the Belize, the best medium of certain value, 
but only of limited circulation, was the 'carot' of tobacco. This article is still 
prepared in Louisiana by the plantation manufacturers of tobacco, and 'carets' 
of Terique' may still be seen in all the tobacconists' shops— a solid roll of 
the shape and appearance of a bologna sausage. These rolls were called 
'carots,' from their resemblance to the root of that name, and they were in 
common use and demand in the early days in Lower and Upper Louisiana 
from their convenience. All the grown population, male and female, took 
snuff; each carried his or her snuff-box habitually, and each prepared his 
snuff and filled his box in the morning. The snuff was not ground as now, 
but rasped or grated from the end of one of these rolls, and hence their 
form and solidity was a desideratum. The carots had a definite weight, like 
the packs of furs, and their usual value was about two livres." -^ 

"The fixed price was forty cents per pound for finest deerskins, thirty 
cents for medium, and twenty cents for inferior, and all contracts, unless there 
was an express stipulation to the contrary, were made in this medium. Spanish 
coin never affected the fur currency. The Spanish government paid off its 

officers and troops in hard dollars, but this was a mere drop in the bucket 

less than twelve thousand dollars a year for St. Louis. Even after the transfer 
to the United States, peltry continued the controlling currency for a number 
of years. Judge J. B. C. Lucas made his first purchase of a house for his 
residence in St. Louis in this currency, buying of Pierre Duchouquette and 
wife their domicile, for the price of six hundred dollars in peltries. This was 
December 14, 1807." -'^ 

These peltries were redeemable in money only at New- 
Orleans, and as the skins were subject to risk and loss on the 
way, the merchant sold his goods at a price proportionate to the 
venture. Everything sold at an enormous price, the result being 
that a common workman received ten to twelve francs a day.-* 

Scharf paid this remarkable tribute to Robert Campbell, fur 
trader and St. Louis merchant. ^^ 

"Years before, however. Col. Campbell had gained an enviable reputation 
for great energy of character, rare administrative ability, and dauntless 
courage, in connection with his fur-trading operations in the Indian country, 
in conducting which he did as much perhaps as any other single individual to 
give St. Louis her early fame in the Far West. . . . General Ashley re- 
tired in 1830, having amassed a fortune, and then Campbell rose from being 
merely a leader of expeditions to the position of a prominent partner in the 
Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which was organized upon the withdrawal of 
Gen. Ashley, the leading spirits in its formation being Robert Campbell and 
Col. William Sublette. The American Fur Company, represented by Chouteau 
& Co., was an energetic rival in the field, and the vastness of the operations 
of these competitors appears from the fact that when, in order to prevent 
ruinous rivalry on the same ground, a division of the territory was agreed 
upon, there fell to Mr. Campbell's company all the immense region west and 
south of a line commencing on the Arkansas River at a point south of the 
Platte, on the twenty-fourth meridian, up to the forks of the Platte, thence 

22lbid., 291. A livre was worth about eig-hteen and a half cents at that time 

24lbid. 

23Ibid., 292. 

25Ibld.. 370 f. •■■..•: 

—15-^ 



to the dividing line of the waters emptying into the Platte and the waters 
emptying into the upper Missouri, thence to the Rocky Mountains, and thence 
to the forks of the Missouri. . . . John Jacob Astor had a house in St. 
Louis, and there were also engaged in the trade Gen. Ashley, Campbell, Sub- 
lette, Manuel Lisa, Capt. Perkins, Hempstead, William Clark, Labadie, the 
Chouteaus, and Pierre Menard — 'mighty hunters before the Lord' — all of whom 
either lived in St. Louis or made it their headquarters. . . . Campbell's 
straightforward and truthful dealings made a similarly happy impression on 
the Indians. He never deceived or cheated them, as many white men had 
done, and therefore enjoyed their perfect confidence and friendship." 2« 

Campbell acquired a large fortune in the fur trade and upon 
returning to St. Louis engaged in mercantile and other pursuits 
and became an extensive owner of real estate. 

One of the first cotton dealers in Missouri Territory was 
John Mullanphy, of whom Brackenridge has recorded the follow- 
ing story : 

Mullanphy speculated largely in cotton, and it was his bales 
with which Jackson erected a defense at New Orleans. When the 
owner entered complaint against such use of his property, Jack- 
son replied — 

"This is your cotton? Then no one has better a right to de- 
fend it. Take a musket and stand in the ranks." After peace was 
declared, Mullanphy dug out his cotton and cleared $1,000,000 
on it in the Liverpool market.^' 

The first record of a trading deal on the site of St. Louis 
was in the digging of the first cellars in the town. A group of 
the Missourians were drawn down to the site of the new town 
in search of aid from the white men, and Auguste Chouteau had 
the squaws dig the cellars for the houses he was building. 

Brackenridge says that the squaws were paid in beads 
and ornaments, but Chouteau's dairy says he gave them Ver- 
million, awls and verdigris.^* 

Probably the most noted merchant of the day of American 
birth was General William Ashley, who emigrated to this terri- 
tory from Virginia in 1803. He was also one of the most noted 
of the fur traders and established the trade with Utah in 1824. 

Early St. Louis is thus described by one author: 
"When' this territory was ceded in 1804 in St. Louis there were one bakery, 
two taverns, three blacksmiths, two mills and one doctor. The settlement was 
well supplied with merchants who held their goods at exorbitant prices. 
Coffee and sugar each at $2 per pound. . . . Stores of the day were com- 
monly stored in family homes and were a general assortment from fish hooks 
to lexicons." -^ 



26This Robert Campbell was an uncle of Dr. W. L. Campbell, of Kansas City, 
who is a member of the Missouri Valley Historical Society. 
27Ibid., 188. 
28lbid., p. 69. 
29Shepard's History of St. Louis, p. 35. 

—16— 



"No scales were in use in St. Louis prior to 1831. . . . Coal was sold 
by the bushel or wagon load. And hay by the load — so much for so much." "" 

Another author writing of the fur trade, shows the great im- 
portance of this industry to St, Louis : 

"The average annual value of the furs collected in St. Louis for fifteen 
successive years (ending 1804) is stated to have been $203,750.00. James 
Pursley in 1802 was first hunter and trapper, and probably the first American 
who traversed the great plains between the United States and New Mexico. 
The Missouri Fur Company with a capital of $40,000.00 was organized in this 
city (St. Louis) in 1808, and the hunters in its employ were the first who 
pitched their camps on the waters of the Oregon. That company was dissolved 
in 1812. Between the years 1824 and 1827 General Ashley and his men sent, 
to St. Louis furs to the value of $180,000. The annual value of the fur trade 
for forty years (1804-1847) has averaged from two to three hundred thousandl 
dollars, and hence an important item in the growth of St. Louis." ''^ 

Major Amos Stoddard was the American representative in 
the formal transfer of Upper Louisiana at St. Louis in 1804, and 
was the first American commandant at that place. He wrote of 
his impressions of this new country and his book is valuable for 
its reliable information. He wrote in part: 

"Agriculture and industry, by which wealth is at first accumulated in new 
regions, necessarily precedes commerce, and are the foundations of it." '- 

"Had Indian commerce been wholly prohibited, or confined to a few ex- 
clusive traders only, and the settlers generally restricted to agriculture, and 
to the acquisition of raw materials for foreign markets, the power of France 
in America would have been much more formidable than it was." ''" 

The following great industrial activities were sources of 
revenue in early Missouri history: Mining, Indian fur trade, 
frontier military posts, Mexican trade, outfitting Western expe- 
ditions. Thirty years later, in 1848, came the California gold 
rush. 

Beltrami wrote in 1828: 

". . . The trade of St. Louis is prodigiously increased. The merchan- 
dise it furnishes to the traders with the Indians to the north and west in 
exchange for furs, which are almost all sent hither — the provisions with which 
it supplies all the garrisons and new settlements over the whole extent of 
this vast country — are sources of great profit, as well as of constant employ- 
ment for all classes" 

In the first decade of the nineteenth century Auguste 
Chouteau was the richest man in St. Louis. His tax«s were 
$87.42, altho the rate of assessment seems to have been only one- 
half cent on the dollar, and total exemptions on some classes of 
property.^^ Bartholomew Berthold was called the most finished 
and accomplished merchant of his day in St. Louis.^' Berthold, 
Pierre Chouteau, Jr., John Pierre Cabanne and Bernard Pratte 



30Ibid., p. 113. 

SiPerkins's, Annals of the West, pp. 807f. 
32Stoddard's, Sketches of Louisiana, p. 293. 
33Ibid., p. 295. 
34Scharf, I, 193. 
35Ibid., 196 fn. 

—17— 



became connected with John Jacob Astor as partners in trade, 
under the name of the American Fur Company. They all made 
large sums of money.^'' 

I want to call attention to Hon. Wm. P. Borland's masterful 
speech in the House of Representatives, May 22nd, 1911, on 
"Missouri the Mother of Empires," and I urge also that one read 
and preserve that splendid address of former Governor Herbert S. 
Hadley before the meeting of the Missouri Valley Historical 
Society in Kansas City, Missouri, April 19, 1913. 

No record of the Missouri Merchant One Hundred Years 
Ago is complete without reference to that great artery of trade, 
the Sante Fe Trail. The town of Franklin in Howard county was 
the cradle of the Sante Fe Trail, which was made up so largely of 
Missouri merchants. This work really began in 1819, and when 
a yearly record began to be kept of this trade, in 1822, we find 
that that year the merchandise amounted to 15,000 pounds; m 
1828, 150,000 pounds, 100 wagons and 200 men; in 1831, 250,000 
pounds, 130 wagons and 320 men; in 1843, 450,000 pounds, 230 
wagons and 320 men. The classic authority on the Santa Fe 
Trail and the trade development is found in the book published in 
1844 in New York and London, by Dr. Josiah Gregg, and is said 
to be the foundation of every work on this subject since its ap- 
pearance. 

Senator Benton in his Thirty Yea7^s Vieiv speaks highly of 
Col. James Magoffin, who was a great merchant and lived at one 
time at Independence. He aided the United States Government in 
the Doniphan expedition, and it was through his work and 
diplomacy with the Mexican authorities that New Mexico became 
United States territory without the shedding of blood. Benton 
said that he wished posterity to know the sacrifices made by 
Magoffin in the interest of his country. 

The tale of the origin of the Oregon Trail, beginning in 1808 
is almost like that of the Santa Fe Trail. They were both the 
most direct and available routes between trade centers and start- 
ing from the Missouri River.^^ 

I will close with an extract from Col. D. C. Allen's paper on 
"The Bonnet Show at Big Shoal Creek Meeting House, Clay Coun- 
ty, Missouri." Col. Allen is eighty-three years old and lives at 
Liberty, Missouri. This paper is recorded in the archives of the 
Missouri Valley Historical Society. 

"The beginnings of Liberty (Clay County) were in 1821 and, until after 
the building of Weston and Platte City, and even somewhat later, was the 
center of trade and fashion in all the surrounding country north of the Mis- 



36Ibid. " 

37Wm. E. Connelley, Kansas and Kansans. 



—18— 



souri River. In the county it maintained its pre-eminence in a degree until 
Kansas City assumed importance and trade was attracted thither. Here was 
the town, one can see, for a period almost the only town in the county, where 
ladies could purchase fine goods, fashionable bonnets, etc., in the springtime. 

"The first settlers in Clay County — far back in 1819 and the early twen- 
ties — could have hauled in their wagons but little beyond absolute necessities. 
Finery could not have been largely considered. The slow and laborious navi- 
gation of the Missouri River by keel boats added something, but not much, to 
the comforts and convenience of the people. 

"But, after Long's Expedition up the Missouri River in 1819 by steam- 
boat, its navigation by steam began to develop. By 1826 it assumed something 
like regularity. Allen's landing three and one-half miles south of Liberty 
was established in 1825. At once on the beginning of steam navigation of the 
river, the merchants of Liberty began to purchase for local trade fine goods, 
bonnets and the like in Philadelphia and their fine groceries in Baltimore. 
This continued for a number of years. Merchants left Liberty for the East to 
make their spring and summer purchases early in February. Their purchases 
began to arrive in Liberty during the latter part of March, or the forepart of 
April. The stores in Liberty thus became centers of attraction for the ladies, 
old and young, in Clay and the surrounding country. The spring bonnets! 
The spring bonnets! It was a race with all the girls for the first pick of the 
new bonnets. 

"Mr. W. S. Embree (now in his ninety-sixth year) says the annual bonnet 
show at the Big Shoal Church was in existence prior to 1835. It could not well 
have had a beginning until fine goods, above all spring bonnets, could be 
transported up the Missouri River and displayed in the store of Liberty. The 
origin, then, of the bonnet show was near 1826. Then, and for many years 
later, there was no church in Clay County which attracted so many persons 
to its religious service, particularly on the second Sunday in May, the annual 
exhibition of the spring bonnet show, as did the Big Shoal Meeting House, 
the Church of the Primitive Baptists. 

"During all those years it was the fashionable church of Clay County. 
The second Sunday in May was its pre-eminent day in the year. Nature, 
commerce, and social life, here in Clay County were in harmony. The second 
Sunday in May is in the midst of the most flowery and delightful part of the 
spring. Nothing could be more natural than that the belles and beaux of all 
the surrounding country should instinctively flock to the Big Shoal Meeting 
House at the great annual meeting on the second Sunday in May to see and 
chat with each other. By that time the ladies, young and old, would have 
secured their new spring bonnets and dresses. The girls could display their 
youthful charms to the very best advantage. The side of the church allotted 
to the ladies would be a mass of colors, topped by a gorgeous array of spring 
bonnets. Some person of happy thought and good taste, some phrase maker, 
seeing the gaily attired mass of femininity, conceived and gave expression to 
the tei-m 'bonnet show.' It took hold firmly in the minds of the people and 
holds until this day." 



—19- 




WALTER B. STEVENS, ST. LOUIS, MO., 
President, State Historical Society of Missouri. 



—20— 



ONE HUNDRED YEARS ON THE MISSOURI RIVER. 

By 

WALTER B. STEVENS, 

President Missouri State Historical Society 

Read before the Missouri Valley Historical Society at the Pioneer 
Banquet in honor of the Centennial of Steam Navigation on the 
Missouri, November 8, 1919. 

If there were Indians on these Kansas City Bluffs in 1819 
they must have had the scare of their lives. The Western Engi- 
neer crept up the river at the speed of three miles an hour — where 
the current was not too swift. It was an amazing craft. The 
like of it has not been seen on the Missouri since. The St. 
Louis Enquirer described this craft. Thomas H. Benton was one 
of the chief contributors to the Enquirer, writing news as well 
as opinions. This account of the Western Engineer is worthy 
of him: 

"The bow of this vessel exhibits the form of a huge serpent, 
black and scaly, rising out of the water from under the boat, his 
head as high as the deck, darted forward, his mouth open, vom- 
iting smoke, and apparently carrying the boat on his back. From 
under the boat, at its stern, issues a stream of foaming water, 
dashing violently along. All the machinery is hid. Three small 
brass field pieces mounted on wheel carriages stand on the deck. 
The boat is ascending the rapid stream at the rate of three miles 
an hour. Neither winds nor human hands are seen to help her, 
and, to the eye of ignorance, the illusion is complete that a mon- 
ster of the deep carries her on his back, smoking with fatigue 
and lashing the waves with violent exertion. Her equipments 
are at once calculated to attract and awe the savages, objects 
pleasing and terrifying are at once placed before him — artillery, 
the flag of the Republic, portraits of the white man and the 
Indian shaking hands, the calumet of peace, a sword, then the 
apparent monster with a painted vessel on his back, the sides 
gaping with portholes and bristling with guns. Taken altogether, 
and without intelligence of her composition and design, it would 
require a daring savage to approach and accost her with Ham- 
let's speech : 'Be thou a spirit of wrath or goblin damned.' " 

One of the aboriginal Missourians, after he stopped run- 
ning, is said to have passed this judgment on the Western En- 
gineer : 

"White man, bad man; keep great spirit chained and build 
fire under it to make it work a boat." 

But the Western Engineer accomplished its purpose. The 
tribes, far and wide, were awestruck. Major Stephen H. Long 

—21— 



and his corps of scientific men, including a botanist, a geologist, 
a zoologist, a naturalist, a painter and topographers, were able 
to complete their official exploration for the United States Gov- 
ernment without Indian interference. They went up the Mis- 
souri to the vicinity of what is now Omaha and, dividing into 
parties, traveled westward to the Rocky Mountains and circled 
around until they came out at Fort Smith. They made an elab- 
orate report. On the basis of the conclusions of the party the 
government spread over the map from the Missouri River to the 
Rocky Mountains the words "Great American Desert." And those 
words remained there for nearly forty years. Not until 1854 did 
the government take steps to open Kansas to settlement. Some 
of us remember those capital letters in a great semi-circle, ex- 
tending from Texas northward, on our school map. 

Major Long wrote in his report: 

"In regard to this extensive section of country we do not 
hesitate in giving the opinion, that it is almost wholly unfit for 
cultivation and of course uninhabitable by a people depending 
upon agriculture for their subsistence. Although tracts of fer- 
tile land considerably extensive are occasionally to be met with, 
yet the scarcity of wood and water, almost uniformly prevalent, 
will prove an insuperable obstacle in the way of settling the 
country. This objection rests not only against the immediate 
section under consideration, but applies with equal propriety to 
a very much larger portion of the country." 

And then Major Long applied his desert theory to parts of 
Texas and the Dakotas: 

"Agreeably to the best intelligence that can be had, concern- 
ing the country northward and southward of the section, and 
especially to the references deducible from the account given by 
Lewis and Clark of the country situated between the Missouri 
and the Rocky Mountains, above the river Platte, the vast region, 
commencing near the sources of the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos and 
Colorado, extending northwardly to the forty-ninth degree north 
latitude, by which the United States is limited in that direction, 
is throughout of a similar character. The whole of this region 
seems peculiarly adapted as a range for buffaloes, wild goats, 
and other wild game, incalculable multitudes of which find ample 
pasturage and subsistence upon it." 

Major Long found reason to congratulate the government 
that this Great American Desert was where, according to his 
observation, it was: 

"This region, however, viewed as a frontier, may prove of 
infinite importance to the United States, inasmuch as it is cal- 

—22— 



culated to serve as a barrier to prevent too great an extension 
of our population westward, and secure us against the machina- 
tions or incursions of an enemy that might otherwise be disposed 
to annoy us in that quarter." 

Long, it may be added, was an officer of the engineer corps 
of high attainments. 

The first steamboat reached St. Louis in 1817. That was 
the Zebulon M. Pike. It was a very primitive affair. The hull 
was built like a barge. The power was a low pressure engine, 
with a walking beam. The wheels had no wheel houses. The 
boat had but one smokestack. Where the current was rapid the 
crew used poles to help out the steam power. The Pike ran only 
by daylight. The trip from Louisville to St. Louis and return 
required four weeks. One account of it gives the time as six 
weeks. The General Pike was such an object of curiosity that 
Captain Jacob Reed charged the St. Louisans who wished to come 
on board a dollar apiece. The admission was not prohibitive. 
Several times the boat became so crowded that the captain stopped 
receiving and waited for those on the deck to go ashore. The 
mention of the coming and going of the Pike was made very 
briefly by the Missouri Gazette. 

The year after the coming of the Pike, some Ohio River 
men built a steamboat they called the St. Louis and sent her 
around to that port. Captain Hewes invited a number of lead- 
ing citizens to take a ride up to the mouth of Missouri. The 
Gazette in its next issue reported that "the company on board 
was large and genteel and the entertainment very elegant." 

One thing that affected the early interest in St. Louis in 
steamboating was the general doubt about steam navigation of 
the Missouri. The Pike had made three and three-quarter miles 
against the Ohio current. If that was the best the steam engine 
afloat could do, the motive power would not succeed on the er- 
ratic, boiling waters of the Missouri. 

About the first of May, 1819, the Maid of Orleans came into 
port at St. Louis. She had steamed from Philadelphia to New 
Orleans and then up the Mississippi to St. Louis. That same 
month the Independence left St. Louis and went up the Missis- 
sippi and the Missouri as far as Franklin, near Boonville. She 
was thirteen days on the way, but she did it, and unloaded her 
cargo of flour, whiskey, sugar, iron castings. Then, indeed, the 
town of Laclede sat up and marveled. Colonel Charless, the first 
Missouri editor, acknowledged his skepticism and glorified the 
new era of steam navigation. He published in the Gazette this 
congratulation : 

—23— 




« 



o S 

CO M 



-24- 



"In 1817, less than two years ago, the first steamboat ar- 
rived in St. Louis. We hailed it as the day of small things, but 
the glorious consummation of all our wishes is daily arriving. 
Who would or could have dared to conjecture that in 1819 we 
would have witnessed the arrival of a steamboat from Phila- 
delphia or New York? Yet such is the fact. The Mississippi 
has become familiar to this great American invention and an- 
other new avenue is open." 

A month later, when the Independence had returned from 
the first navigation of the Missouri by steam, the Gazette said: 

"This trip forms a proud event in the history of Missouri. 
The Missouri has hitherto resisted almost effectually all attempts 
at navigation. She has opposed every obstacle she could to the 
tide of emigration which was rolling up her banks and dispos- 
sessing her dear red children, but her white children, although 
children by adoption, have become so numerous and are increas- 
ing so rapidly that she is at last obliged to yield them her favor. 
The first attempt to ascend her by steam has succeeded, and we 
anticipate the day as speedy when the Missouri will be as fa- 
miliar to steamboats as the Mississippi or Ohio. Captain Nelson 
merits and will receive deserved credit for his enterprise and 
public spirit in this undertaking." > 

Only second to the Western Engineer in marvelous concep- 
tion was the Nat-wye-thium. There was a fleet of the Nat-wye- 
thiums. This wonderful craft was designed to travel on both 
land and water. It had wheels. The body was shaped partly 
like a canoe, partly like a gondola. The inventor was Captain 
Nathaniel Wyeth Jarvis, a Harvard man. As early as 1830 there 
were Boston people who felt competent to take care of the rest 
of the world. Headed by Hall J. Kelly, they organized the 
"American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of Oregon 
Territory," thereby intending to forestall territorial aggression 
by their British brethren across the water. Two Wyeths were 
among the earliest converts to the propaganda. Thej^ got up a 
company and sailed or rolled into Missouri \vith their fleet of 
boats on wheels. Each man had a bayonet and a small ax in 
the belt of his coarse woolen suit. The boat wagons were loaded 
with axes, glass beads, looking-glasses and other notions to be 
exchanged for immense quantities of furs. The plan was to 
exchange the Yankee notions for enough furs to load a ship when 
they reached Oregon, and then sail home by the ocean route. The 
Missourians were kind to the Harvard tenderfeet, explained the 
fur trade to them and permitted those who wished to go on to 
accompany one of the regular fur trading expeditions. The Nat- 

—25— 



wye-thiums were discarded, before the party left Missouri. John 
B. Wyeth, brother of Nat., was one who turned back. He wrote 
a journal in which he told of the mistakes made and said some 
of the members, the flower of Boston and Cambridge, were so 
hard up they had to work their way back by helping to "wood 
up" to pay for steamboat deck passage. His journal was pub- 
lished as a warning to other Harvard men. The vessel, which 
was to have loaded with furs, was shipwrecked. 

In his journal John B. Wyeth told about a craft which was 
as astonishing to the Massachusetts party as the Nat-wye-thium 
was to the Missourians. This was the bull boat, built to carry- 
loads of pelts down the Missouri to St. Louis at the time when 
buffalo and deerskins by the ten thousands were counted in the 
season's catch of the fur traders. Wyeth said : 

"They first cut a number of willows, which grow everywhere 
near the banks of all the rivers we had traveled by from St. 
Louis, of about an inch and a half diameter at the butt end, and 
fixed them on the ground at proper distances from each other; 
and as they approached nearer one end they brought them nearer 
together, so as to form something like the bow. The ends of the 
whole were brought and bound firmly together, like the ribs of 
a great basket. And then they took other twigs of willow and 
wove them into those stuck in the ground, so as to make a sort 
of firm, huge basket of twelve or fourteen feet long. After this 
was completed, they sewed together a number of buffalo skins, 
and with them covered the whole. After the different parts had 
been trimmed off smooth, a slow fire was made under the bull 
boat, taking care to dry the skins moderately, and, as they grad- 
ually dried and acquired a due degree of warmth, they rubbed 
buffalo tallow all over the outside, so as to allow it to enter 
into all the seams of the boat, now no longer a willow basket. 
As the melted tallow ran down into every seam, hole and crevice, 
it cooled into a firm body, capable of resisting the water, and 
bearing a considerable blow without damaging it. Then the wil- 
low-ribbed, buffalo-skin, tallowed vehicle was carefully pulled up 
from the ground, and, behold, a boat capable of transporting 
man, horse and goods over a pretty strong current. At the sight 
of it we Yankees all burst out into a loud laugh, whether from 
surprise or pleasure, I know not. It certainly was not from 
ridicule ; for we all acknowledged the contrivance would have done 
credit to old New England." 

While steamboating was in the experimental period Mis- 
sourians navigated their rivers with longhorns, pirogues and 
keelboats. Cottonwood logs, trimmed and lashed together and 

—26— 



floored, made flats that carried great quantities of produce to 
market. Two enterprising young men in Cox's Bottom, Saline 
County, 1820, were Henry Nave and James Sappington. They 
built a longhorn, loaded it with cured hog meat and some other 
truck and floated down the Missouri and Mississippi to St. Louis, 
only to find that the market was overstocked. Cutting loose they 
floated on down to Herculaneum in Jefferson County, the ship- 
ping point of the Missouri lead mines. They sold out and walked 
back to Cox's Bottom. A son of Henry Nave founded one of the 
great wholesale houses of Missouri. 

Longhorns were built for one trip. They were not designed 
to be brought back up stream. But the pirogue was a freight 
boat or barge built to last. It was from thirty-five to sixty feet 
long with a depth of from twelve to fifteen feet, having capacity 
Oif thirty or forty tons. The freight rate was a cent a pound for 
short distances; fifteen cents a pound from St. Louis to Fort 
Benton. A crew was required to keep the pirogue moving, some- 
times with a long rope, called a cordelle, more often with oars, 
and, when the water was shallow, with poles. A short stub mast 
and a square sail helped when the wind favored, 

Henry M. Brackenridge, the first traveling newspaper cor- 
respondent of Missouri, made the trip up river by pirogue. That 
craft carried twenty men. The time was 1811. In that part of 
his journal written about the time passing the mouth of the Kaw, 
Brackenridge said : 

"We had now come 300 miles upon our voyage; and for the 
last hundred had seen no settlement or met anyone except a few 
traders or hunters who passed us in canoes. With the exception 
of a few spots, where the ravages oi fire had destroyed the 
woods, we passed through a continued forest presenting the most 
dreary aspect." 

Speaking of the departure from Fort Osage, Brackenridge 
wrote : 

"We have now passed the last settlement of whites and prob- 
ably will not revisit them for several months. This reflection 
seemed to have taken possession of the minds of all. Our men 
were kept fromi thinking too deeply by their songs and the 
splashing of bars which kept time with them. Manuel Lisa, 
himself, seized the helm and gave the song, and at the close of each 
stanza, made the woods ring with his shouts of encouragement. 
The whole was intermixed with short and pithy addresses to 
their fears, their hopes or their ambition. 

"I believe an American could not be brought to support with 
patience the fatiguing labors and submission which these men 

—27— 




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—28— 



endure. At this season when the water is cold, they leap in 
without a moment's hesitation. Their food consists of lye corn 
hominy for breakfast, a slice of fat pork and biscuit for dinner, 
and a pot of mush with a pound of tallow in it for supper." 

In his "Scenes and Adventures in the Army," Philip St. 
George Cooke described the voyageurs of the Missouri : 

"These men are generally French Creoles and form a small 
class as distinct in character from any other as is the sailor from 
his fellow bipeds who dwell on shore. But if possible, he some- 
what resembles the said sailor — isolated on the prairie desert, as 
the other on the sea. He has a patient and submissive obedience, 
with a seeming utter carelessness of privations, such as would 
drive a seaman to mutiny. With the same reckless abandon to 
some transient and coarse enjoyment, he is a hardy and light- 
hearted child of nature in her wildest simplicity; and in these, 
her solitudes, he receives a stepmother's care, and battles with 
a stout heart against her most wintry moods. He resembles the 
Indian, too, and is generally of kindred blood; he possesses his 
perseverance, his instinctive sagacity, and his superstition. A 
very Gascon, he has the French cheerful facility of accommoda- 
tion to his fated exigencies, and lightens all by an invincible and 
contagious mirth. He is handsome, athletic, active ; dresses chiefly 
is buckskin; wears a sash and knife; lives precariously, generally 
on flesh alone; is happy when his pipe is lit; and when he cannot 
smoke sings a song. He is armed and vigilant while at his sever- 
est labors. He joyously spends his ten dollars a month on alcohol, 
tobacco, coffee, and sugar, and in gaudy presents to some half- 
breed belle, paying the most incredible prices for these extrava- 
gant luxuries." 

A favorite ballad with the fur traders' crews, as they plied 
the oars of their pirogues on the Missouri, before the steamboat 
era, ran, according to Bradbury's translation, in this way: 

I. 

Behind our house there is a pond. 

Fal lal de ra. 
* There came three ducks to swim thereon, 

All along the river clear, 
Lightly, my shepherdess dear, 

Lightly, fal de ra. 

n. 

There came three ducks to swim thereon. 

Fal lal de ra. 
The prince to chase them he did run, 
All along the river clear. 
Lightly, my shepherdess dear, 

Lightly, fal de ra. 

—29— 



III. 

The prince to chase them he did run, 

Fal lal de ra. 
And he had his great silver gun, 
All along the river clear, 
Lightly, my shepherdess dear, 

Lightly, fal de ra. 

The keel-boat was of lighter draft, narrower, and of greater 
speed than the pirogue. Edwin Draper, who moved to Missouri 
in 1815, told of the keel-boat which did duty as a ferry boat: 

"It was without upper deck or cabin, and was propelled by 
four oars by hand. The wagons, then the only means of land 
travel, were run by hand onto the boat, across which were placed 
broad planks transversely, resting on the gunwales of the boat, 
while the tongue of the wagon projected beyond the side of the 
boat, and as the latter swayed gracefully to the motion of the 
waves, the tongue-chains would dip politely into the water, as if 
acknowledging the power of the mighty monarch they were daring 
to stride. The horses, wagon, and saddle, family, slaves, and 
dogs were stowed in the bottom of the boat between the wagons, 
and thus we triumphantly entered Missouri. Our crossing, with 
many other families, was detained several days by high winds 
and waves preventing the safe crossing of the boat." 

There was steamboating on the Missouri River tributaries 
in the pioneer days. One of the early legislatures declared Grand 
River a navigable stream to the Missouri line. It has not been 
many years since the government spent money to make the Osage 
navigable for a considerable distance above its mouth. The time 
was when steamboats ascended the Osage as far as Harmony 
Mission in Bates County, almost to the Kansas line. Mr. Roose- 
velt told Congress that "Running water is the most valuable nat- 
ural avenue of the people." On that judgment Missourians are by 
nature the richest of Americans. One acre in every hundred 
acres of Missouri geography is running water. 

As early as 1842 a small steamboat made trips to the forks 
of the Grand in Livingston County. As late as 1865 a steamboat 
landed at Chillicothe. Those boats on the Grand River brought 
out cargoes of hickory nuts — nuts so large and finely flavored 
that they had a reputation beyond the State. The home market 
price of these products of the shellbark forests was twenty-five 
cents a bushel, which was considered fair sixty years ago. 

One day in early summer, Matthew Arbuckle rode into 
Papinsville. His horse was panting and flecked with foam. Matt 
told the group which gathered about him, that, while plowing on 
his claim about a mile from the Osage, he had heard a terrible 

—30— 



noise. He said it was something like the scream of a "painter" 
only ten times as long and loud. He had ridden in to tell the 
folks that some wild animal different from anything hitherto 
known in the Ozarks was in the woods down the river. Uncle 
John Whitley, who had "fit with Jackson" at New Orleans, and 
who was the acknowledged leader in that pioneer community, 
was sent for. He listened to Arbuckle and said the only thing 
to do was to get the hounds together, take the guns and go after 
the varmint, which, he reckoned, must have wandered down from 
the Rocky Range, as they called the Rocky Mountains in those 
days. Uncle Jimmy Breckinridge seconded Captain Whitley, and 
the settlers got ready. As the posse was about to start for the 
trail, a faint repetition of what Arbuckle had reported was heard. 
It was sure enough a new and terrifying sound. Uncle John at 
once remembered that his pretty daughter, Mattie, had gone on 
her pony to the river that morning. 

"Ride, men!" he shouted. "Ridel Mat went down to the 
river and I expect she's dead by this time." 

There was mounting in hot haste, but before the start was 
fairly underway here came Mattie with her hair flying. She had 
heard the monster. Uncle John bade her get to the house and 
tell all of the women folks to keep within doors. Among those 
who followed the hounds that memorable day were the Morrises, 
the Roarks, the Snyders, the Burches and other pioneers of that 
region. Every now and then the unearthly noises, a combination 
of scream and howl, could be heard, sometimes near and again 
far down the river. The hounds sniffed and yelped but found 
no trail. The cliffs of the Osage echoed and re-echoed the 
sounds. Darkness and storm came on together. Captain John 
Whitley led his party to Rock House, a cave forming a room 
twenty feet high, thirty feet wide and forty feet deep. Rock 
House was where the Whitleys had passed their first winter in 
the Ozarks. The floor was covered with dry white sand, a very- 
comfortable camping place. Just before nightfall the dogs started 
a buck and the hunters dropped it. Supper was made of the 
fresh venison. There was no disturbance in the night, but at 
daybreak that nerve-racking sound brought every man to his 
feet and set the hounds howling. The noise seemed to show that 
the monster was coming up the river and was near. Uncle John 
posted his men for the encounter, every one behind a big tree. 
Four were told off with orders to have their knives ready and to 
wade in if the lead failed to stop the beast. Near Rock House 
was one of the sharpest of the scores of curves and bends of the 
Osage. Around the point and into view of the amazed settlers 
came slowly the Flora Jones, the first steamboat to ascend the 

—31— 



upper Osage. As was the case in those days the size of the 
whistle and the scream of the exhaust was out of all proportion 
to the dimensions of the boat. Old river men say that it was 
no uncommon thing to hear the exhaust of those pioneer steam- 
boats ten or twelve miles. The whistles carried much farther. 
Long stops and much use of the whistle to give notice o£ the 
coming of the boat was the practice before the days of the tele- 
graph. The slow rate of speed, two or three miles an hour, the 
sinuous course of the Osage, and the reverberations of the caves 
and cliffs added enough illusions to warrant credence for this 
tradition of the Osage. 

River improvement in Missouri had its beginning nearly one 
hundred years ago. It was successful in that it told future gen- 
erations how not to do it. An immense sandbar formed in front 
of St. Louis. It threatened to throw the channel far over to the 
Illinois side. And that at a time when St. Louis was just com- 
mencing to realize the good of river traffic. Wealthy citizens 
raised a lot of money for that day. General Bernard Pratte 
headed the list. Thomas Fiveash Riddick came forward with a 
plan. He was the man who had ridden horseback to Washing- 
ton in the dead of winter to get Congress to give for public 
schools land not covered by French grants and other private 
titles. He was a public-spirited citizen of much initiative. 
Riddick's theory was to plow these deposits of Missouri River 
silt when the water was low. He argued that the next rise would 
carry away the loosened sand. Public opinion decided that 
Riddick's theory would work out. John Goodfellow — mark that 
name ! — was chosen to take charge. He got oxen and the heaviest 
plow he could have made. Up and down the sandbar Good- 
fellow's oxen were gee-ed and haw-ed, dragging the great plow 
until they had loosened every foot of sand which showed above 
water. All St. Louis gathered on the river front and watched 
the job of plowing the Mississippi. The people turned out again 
when the water rose and fell. The bar was still there and grow- 
ing and the channel was moving eastward. This went on from 
bad to worse until Congress took up the problem. A young lieu- 
tenant of the engineer corps was sent out from Washington. He 
remained for months, built dikes which threw the current back, 
and made it carry away the silt it had deposited. The sandbar 
was washed away and St. Louis was saved from becoming an 
inland city. The young lieutenant was Robert E. Lee. 

Steamboating on the Missouri reached a climax in 1867. 
That year there were seventy-one boats in the Missouri River 
trade. The next year the decline began, with sixty-two. Then, 
with the rapid building of railroads, and the mounting cost of 

—32— 



insurance, the falling off in river trade was appalling to those 
who had investments. In the early seventies only nine boats were 
running regularly. In 1879 an effort was made to hold the 
mountain trade with boats built especially for it, but without 
success. 

In the flush days, fifty boats made regular trips on the Mis- 
souri. If not so large, they were as finely finished and equipped 
as the floating palaces on the Mississippi. And they were fast- 
The James H. Lucas made the trip from St. Louis to St. Joseph 
in two days and twelve hours. Those Missouri boats carried loads. 
One cargo of the Wyoming consisted of 16,139 sacks of wheat, 
338 packages of merchandise, and 19 hogs. The Wyoming was 
one of the boats in what was known as "the St. Louis and Kansas 
City Electric Packet Line." The boats of that line had electric 
lights and mocking bird whistles. ^ 

Before the Civil War, the Ben W. Lewis, the Morning Star, 
the Meteor and others carried as many as 200 cabin passengers 
on a trip. They had crews of twenty negro waiters dressed in 
spotless white and they served meals equal to the best hotel bills 
of fare. 

Navigation on the Missouri River developed experts in the 
profession of piloting. Captain Hunter Ben Jenkins, who died a 
few weeks ago in a St. Louis hospital, recalled the time when 
Missouri River pilots were paid from $1,500 to $2,000 a month 
in busy times. Ambitious young men paid gladly a couple of 
thousand dollars to have one of these experts show them the 
Missouri. It was said that these expert pilots not only knew the 
river so well they remembered where the sandbars were, but could 
forecast where the new sandbars were to be and where the snags 
would anchor. There was one of these pilots commonly known as 
Uncle Davy. His daring feat was to come down stream head on, 
direct for a sandbar in full sight of the terror-stricken passen- 
gers. Uncle Davy would ring for the engines to slow down, poke 
the prow into the bar, swing the stern around and back down 
stream by the only practicable way out. 

A wreck for every seven miles of the Missouri from Fort 
Benton to the mouth was the estimate made some years ago. A 
list of 305 of these wrecks was charged up to the Missouri by 
one of these authorities. When the Timour blew up near Jeffer- 
son City in 1854 it killed thirty people and threw the safe upon 
a bluff 200 feet above the river. Two years earlier, in 1852, the 
Saluda exploded near Lexington and killed twenty-seven. But the 
worst of these Missouri River explosions was that of the Edna, 
which was carrying a multitude of German immigrants to settle 

—33— 



in Missouri. That was in 1842. The boat had stopped for the 
night and the immigrants were sleeping on deck, near the boilers. 
As the engineer started in the morning the explosion of the 
boilers occurred and fifty-five of the passengers were killed. The 
Edna was towed back to St. Louis and the scalded survivors were 
taken to the Sisters' Hospital. 

Twenty-four years ago this November men stood in rows 
along the bars in Kansas City saloons and said: 

"Gimme another of that Twilight." 

Forty-four years ago last August, one foggy morning as day 
was breaking, the steamboat Twilight was coming slowly up the 
river. The man at the wheel was doing his best to obey orders to 
"keep her jackstaff on the lone cotton wood to the starboard shore 
and swing her stern around." 

Camden had been passed. Kansas City was near. Suddenly 
a jar was felt. Hog chains parted with a snap. Bow and stern 
went down. The Twilight bulged up in the middle. She had 
missed the channel in the fog and had snagged on a huge syca- 
more. Passengers got ashore and were brought to Kansas City. 
The upper works were in view for several months and then the 
ice swept them away. The $50,000 profits, on which the shippers 
had counted from the delivery of the cargo at head of navigation 
on the Missouri, were swallowed up, as well as the original cost 
of the cargo, and the investment in the sidewheeler. It was a 
case typical of the risks of Missouri River traffic. 

Twenty years, almost to the month, the wreck of the Twi- 
light lay buried. The cargo was a rich one, but the early at- 
tempts to salvage it failed for the most part. Two farmers did 
succeed in getting two barrels of whiskey but when they went 
for more, at the next low stage of the river, the boat had been 
covered with sand and the channel had shifted so far that the 
Twilight could not be located. One item alone of the full cargo 
was three hundred barrels of Monongahela rye, old-fashioned, 
copper distilled, made in the days of the pure stuff. 

In 1895, Kansas City men formed a company and went in 
search of the Twilight. It was a strange adventure. There 
wasn't a vestige of the wreck in sight. Old settlers along the 
river gave the best general directions they could as to the loca- 
tion of the bar that had formed over the boat. With long steel 
rods the sand was prodded until after many days the hull of the 
boat was found. Then the outlines of the wreck were determined 
by more probing. Over what they believed to be the hatch, which 
was thirty-nine feet down in the sand, the wreckers sunk a 
caisson. Inch by inch the great tube, eight feet in diameter at 

—34— 



the bottom, was, lowered, compressed air forcing up the sand. 
This went on for months until at last the caisson reached 
the hatchway and the hold. The wreckers, it is said, danced and 
sang with joy when they found themselves in the midst of cases 
and barrels. One case was broken open. It was stamped "Old 
London Club Gin, 1860." Several bottles were broken by the 
picks in the hands of the excited wreckers. Four bottles were 
carried on shore and taken to Captain Leopold, the finders shout- 
ing-, "We've found it. Cap.; we've found it!" The bottles were 
square faced, of dark green glass, each holding an honest quart, 
sealed with black wax. Several of the bottles were brought to 
the Kansas City Club and some of the oldest connoisseurs were 
invited in to pass judgment. The current newspaper account of 
that test says: 

"It was old-fashioned and had a slight taste a^ of pine or 
turpentine. A few moments after it was swallowed it began to 
make itself felt, and a glow stole through the drinkers, which 
spread from their toes to the tips of their ears, and they told 
voluminously of the good quality of the gin." 

The news spread, exaggerated as usual. Not a drop was 
sold, but before twenty-four hours had passed half of the saloons 
in Kansas City were selling "Twilight whiskey" over the bar. 
Most of those who sampled the camouflaged Twilight said it was 
great, but now and then a skeptic of that generation said the 
stuff tasted about the same as the torchlight whiskey of political 
campaigns. Expectations were not realized. The Twilight salvage 
was a disappointment. 

Three times Kansas City capital has invested in the chance 
of recovering whiskey in the wrecks of Missouri River boats. 
Some thousands of dollars were spent on caissons to reach the 
hull of the Arabia near Parkville, which was supposed to have 
preserved 150 barrels of whiskey. About all that was found was 
a consignment of old wool hats, to show for the cargo which went 
down in 1867. The Leodora burned and sank with 100 barrels 
of liquor, but search revealed about 150 tons of miscellaneous and 
ruined freight. 

Since the first steamboat came up the Missouri, just one 
hundred years ago, there have been more than 300 steamboats 
sunk in the Missouri by snags, explosions, fire or overloads. The 
salvage has been very small. Shifting of the channel has buried 
many of those hulks far from the present course. Somewhere 
near the mouth of the river is the buried Bedford which carried 
down much treasure in the form of gold and silver. One passen- 
ger had $6,000 gold in his trunk. The boat's safe contained, ac- 

—35— 



cording to report, about $25,000 deposited by passengers. Before 
the days of the transcontinental railroads these Missouri boats 
brought down the products of the mines. The Bedford was sunk 
at night with a storm raging. Fifteen passengers were drowned. 
The present Missouri channel is several miles south of where the 
Bedford was wrecked by a snag. 

The Bertrand, which sank in 1867, was bound up with 
$25,000 in quicksilver put up in iron flasks for the Montana 
mines. The cargo of the Butte, which went down near Fort 
Peck, was valued at $110,000. The Boreas, which burned and 
sank near Hermann, was supposed to have been fired by men 
who expected to steal a large amount o£ silver bullion and Mex- 
ican dollars aboard, but the fire spread so rapidly that the rob- 
bers were forced to jump overboard and swim to save their lives. 

A farmer in Chariton County digging a well found a Bible 
far underground. On the cover was printed Naomi, the name of 
a steamboat wrecked in that vicinity in 1840. The well is five 
miles from the present course of the river. 

There was charm of vision as well as good living and many 
kinds of thrills in travel by Missouri boats. "Morning on the 
Missouri" is the subject of a canvas which has revealed to East- 
ern folks the distinctive scenery of the rivers of this State. John 
Sites Ankeney won fame more than State-wide by devoting years 
to painting river and cliff scenes of Missouri. He roamed the 
bluffs of the Missouri a hundred miles or more. He wandered 
through the Ozarks. He made a typical Missouri home with a 
big fireplace his studio in the old town of Rocheport. There, with 
the tawny river in front and the gray limestone cliffs all about 
for atmosphere, he transferred to canvases the sketches made in 
his wanderings. Some of these paintings hang in the corridors 
of the University at Columbia, where successive generations of 
student Missourians may see them, and gain pride of State as 
well as artistic inspiration. Going to and from their classes, the 
sons and daughters stop in groups before the scenes of river and 
landscape which delighted their parents and grandparents in the 
steamboat days. The most beautiful view in Missouri, in Mr. 
Ankeney's judgment, is the bold front Oif the Ozark Uplift seen 
from the Missouri River between New Haven and Hermann. The 
stretch of bluff and plain mingling with the river is beyond de- 
scription in words, the artist says. 

This story of a Missouri River disaster was told to a Com- 
mittee of Congress many years ago by Captain Lloyd G. Harris : 
The boat was named the Missouri Belle. Officers of the Belle, 
from captain to mud clerk, were fond of buttermilk and had an 

—36— 



arrangement with a farmer living near the bank to keep them 
supplied. Whenever the Belle passed that farm the whistle gave 
an agreed signal, slowed down and went to the bank. A bucket 
of buttermilk was brought down by a negro man and was taken 
aboard. One day the Belle, when approaching the Buttermilk 
landing, edged in too soon. It struck a snag and began to sink. 
The captain blew a signal of distress and the lever was fastened 
so that the whistle would continue to blow as long as there was 
steam. There was a rush for the boats. The black man, having 
heard the whistle, was on the way to the landing. As the water 
reached the boilers there was one last gush of steam and the 
whistle gave out an awful wail. The negro had just reached the 
landing, he saw the boat going down, and heard the final gasp. 

"Lawdy!" said he. "Da's de Belle a-sinkin' and a callin' for 
buttermilk wid her last breff." 

The strangest shipwreck on the Missouri was that of "Ring- 
tail Painter" Palmer. Going down from the Grand River coun- 
try to perform his duties as a member of the first Missouri legis- 
lature. Ringtail Painter, as he called himself, had loaded a small 
keelboat with salt and pelts and other products to do a little 
private as well as public business. He placed his boy at the bow 
to look out for snags, while he handled the tiller at the stern. The 
crew was a negro slave. Palmer had an old newspaper which he 
was reading slowly in preparation for his legislative duties. He 
had the tiller between his knees. Suddenly the boy called out: 
"Sawyer, pap!" A sawyer was a tree which had fallen into the 
river, its roots sinking to the bottom while the top, showing just 
above the surface, rose and fell with the current. 

"Wait a minute," said the Grand River statesman, "till I 
spell out this other crack jaw. It's longer than the barrel of my 
rifle gun." 

The keelboat struck the sawyer, rose and turned bottom up. 
The slave swam ashore. Palmer and the boy climbed on the 
bottom of the boat, took off their clothes and got ready to swim 
if it was necessary. The boat floated down in front of Franklin 
where Palmer and the boy were rescued. They were given 
clothes and taken to the house of a citizen who realized the 
respectful consideration due to a member of the Missouri legisla- 
ture of that generation. The lady of the house asked if the little 
boy had not been badly frightened. 

"No, madam," said Palmer, "I am a real ringtail painter, and 
I feed all my children on rattlesnake hearts fried in painter's 
grease." 

—37— 



As he drank his coffee, Palmer philosophized on his ship- 
wreck : 

"There are a heap of people that I would not wear crepe for 
if they was to die before their time. But your husband, marm, 
I allow, has a soul as big as a courthouse. When we war floating 
bottom uppermost past Hardeman's garden, we raised a yell, like 
a whole team of b'ar dogs on a wildcat's trail. And the black 
rascals on shore, instead of coming to our assistance, only grinned 
up the nearest saplin', as if a buck 'possum had treed. The river, 
marm, I find, is no respecter of persons; for I was cast away 
with as little ceremony, notwithstanding I am the people's repre- 
sentative, as a stray b'ar dog would be turned out of a city 
church." 

This generation smiles over Major Long's discovery of the 
"Great American Desert." But some day an historical student 
may put up a strong argument that it was the best thing that 
ever happened for Missouri. Major Long's findings and the 
government's acceptance of them and action upon them fixed 
Missouri for two generations as the farthest west of possible 
civilization. Immigration to this State, before the European revo- 
lutions of 1848 and the potato famine of Ireland in 1849, was 
from Eastern, Southern and Middle States. It made the settle- 
ment of Missouri during that period distinctively American. And 
those who came remained to make their homes and rear Missouri 
families. The movement of Americans westward beyond the 
Missouri did not take place in large numbers until after the 
Civil War. The last census showed that three out of four Mis- 
sourians are to Missouri born. Out of over 3,000,000 population, 
Missouri had only 230,000 alien born — one Missourian of foreign 
birth to thirteen of American birth. The Great American Desert 
played no small part, perhaps, in making Missouri the typical 
and distinctive American State. 




William Patterson Borland 

(BiograpKical Sketch) 

William Patterson Borland was bom in Leavenworth, Kansas, 
October 14, 1867. His mother was Elizabeth Hasson, and his father 
was William Patterson Borland, both of Baltimore, Maryland. His 
paternal grandfather was Thomas Borland, a Scotch-Irish Presby- 
terian, who came to Baltimore from the north of Ireland about 
1800 and was naturalized in 1805. He came to this country on the 
death of his parents and was adopted by his mother's brother, 
William Patterson,^ a super-cargo merchant of Baltimore, owning 
a line of sailing vessels and trading in the East Indies, dealing 
principally in tea, sugar, spices and molasses. Thomas Borland 
later became a partner in the business, the firm being Patterson 
and Borland. Patterson Park in Baltimore was named for this 
William Patterson, but his chief claim to fame is that he was the 
father of Elizabeth, "Glorious Betsy," who married Jerome Bona- 
parte. 

William Patterson very bitterly opposed this marriage on the 
ground of Jerome's being a Catholic and also because he considered 
the Corsican an "upstart." When Napoleon learned of his younger 
brother's marriage he sought to have the marriage annulled by the 
Pope, Pius VII. His Holiness refused to do this and Napoleon 
threatened to reduce him to being merely "Bishop of Rome." Je- 
rome and his bride sailed for France, but she was not permitted 
to land on French soil. He debarked alone, hoping to reconcile 
his brother, the Emperor, to the fact of his American marriage. 
It is probable that he and Elizabeth never met again. William 
Patterson had one of his merchant vessels fitted out to send Eliza- 
beth back to France with Thomas Borland ''as escort, there to de- 
mand recognition as the wife of Jerome Bonaparte and mother of 
his son, "Bo." Again Elizabeth was not allowed to land. She 
lived to be a queenly old lady, and a younger generation looked on 
with awe as "Madame Bonaparte" took her stately, solitary way 
through the more exclusive circles of Baltimore life. 

Thomas Borland, about 1818, married Catherine Ogle of Cecile 
County, Maryland. She was a daughter of Charles Ogle, and her 
grandfather, also Charles Ogle, w^as governor of Maryland. A more 
i emote ancestor had also been a colonial Governor Ogle of Mary- 
land. Their homestead was known as Westerogle, Maryland. 
Catherine Ogle Borland's mother had been Elizabeth Hall, daughter 
of Elisha Hall, a man of large interests in colonial days. Elisha 
and his son Elihu were both in the Revolutionary Army, and at the 
old homestead, Mount Welcome, a ball was once given for Lafayette, 
on his visit to America, where Catherine, a young lady at the time, 
had opened the ball with General Lafayette. 

To Thomas Borland and his wife, Catherine Ogle Borland, were 
born two sons, Thomas Borland and William Patterson Borland. 

—39— 




Hon. William P. Borland 
1867 - - - 1919 



—40— 



Thomas died young, and William, who was born 1827, married 
Elizabeth Hasson, also of Baltimore, in 1856. They moved to War- 
saw, Missouri, and in 1858 moved again, this time to Leavenworth, 
Kansas. There were five children, Thomas, Mary, Katharine, Eliza- 
beth and William Patterson Borland, junior. William was born in 
1867 and came with the family to Kansas City, Missouri, in 1880, 
He attended the old Frariklin school when John Buchanan^ was 
principal, and for a short time attended Central High School while 
E. C. White was principal and E. D. Phillips one of his instructors. 
While employed at the stocky yards he read law in the evenings in 
the office of Pratt-McCrary-Ferry & Hagerman; he entered the 
law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and 
was graduated in 1892. He entered upon the practice of law in 
Kansas City, and in 1895 helped to organize the Kansas City School 
of Law, of which he was dean until he resigned to go to Congress. 
In 1904 he married Ona Winants, daughter of W. H. Winants, a 
[pioneer banker of Kansas City. In 1907 he published a text-book 
on the Law of Wills and Administration of Estates. He served on 
the municipal lobby of Kansas City at the legislature of 1907, and 
drafted several laws relating to city government, including the act 
empowering cities to regulate charges of public-service corporations. 

In April, 1908, he was elected a member of the board of thirteen 
freeholders to draft a new charter for Kansas City. The charter as 
drafted was adopted by popular vote August 4, 1908. 

Mr. Borland was elected to the Sixty-first Congress, defeating 
E. C. Ellis, Republican, and was re-elected to the Sixty-second, 
Sixty-third, Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Congresses, serving until 
his death, February, 1919. He was a member of the Appropria- 
tions Committee and as chairman of the sub-committee on Muni- 
tions he drafted the biggest appropriation bill ever passed by any 
legislative body in any country at any time in the world's history. 
The bill passed the Appropriations Committee with scarcely an 
amendment and passed Congress without amendment, practically 
the work of a single man, a stupendous piece of detail work. 

In January, 1919, Mr. Borland went overseas on a double mis- 
sion, as a member of the Appropriations Committee and as a com- 
missioned delegate from the Grand Lodge of Masons of Missouri. 
He spent three weeks in most active labors, visiting various regi- 
ments of Missouri boys, locating the graves of several Kansas City 
boys whose families had been unable to obtain this information, 
hunting up the trunks and keepsakes of some of our gold-star men, 
and performing many commissions of mercy for anxious relatives 
back home. He visited, in company with two other Congressmen 
and an anny officer, the Army of Occupation along the Rhine, 
going aside several times to hunt up Kansas City boys. They 
traveled in an open automobile in a terrific blizzard and on the way 
back from Coblenz Mr. Borland was taken with a congestive chill 
and was left at an infirmary at Ellenz, Germany. It was thought 
by the army physician in charge that he would go by train in a 
day or two and would perhaps reach Paris ahead of his com- 
panions. He was in this infirmary from February first to the 
eighteenth, each day the physician expecting to be able to start him 
back to Paris. But the bitter weather continued and he seemed 

—41— 



unable to regain his strength. Finally the doctor gave his consent 
to his starting on his return journey. He took him in a closed 
car to the nearest railroad point, Cochem, Germany. Here the 
intention was that he should undergo a thorough examination at 
the field hospital and perhaps rest there a day and then go by 
rail to Paris. But this auto trip was too much for him. It had 
affected his heart, already impaired by continental influenza. He 
was unable to raise his head after arriving at Cochem. He was 
given every care and expert medical attention at the field hospital, 
but died of pneumonia two days later, February 20, at five in the 
afternoon. General Pershing made arrangements that his body 
should be returned to the United States and this was done under 
military escort. 

On Sunday, March second, 1919, at high noon a memorial 
service for Mr. Borland was held by the House of Representatives, 
Speaker Champ Clark presiding. He was also one of the principal 
speakers. Eulogies were pronounced by many of Mr. Borland's 
colleagues on both sides of the House. His death had been so re- 
cent and so tragic that none of the cold formality sometimes inci- 
dent to such services was felt. He had been blessed with many 
warm friends on both sides of the House. An escort of Senators 
and Representatives brought his body in a private car from Wash- 
ington. The Masons also honored him in his death, many coming 
from all over the state to attend his funeral. He was buried in 
Elmwood cemetery on Easter Sunday, April 20, just two months 
to the day after his death. 



NOTE. — The following brief article is printed from a carbon copy found 
among Mr. Borland's papers after his death. He had been asked to have some 
part in the Missouri Centennial celebration, and this was an article written 
in anticipation of the long-looked-forward-to anniversary. 

—42— 



THE CENTENNIAL OF THE ADMISSION OF MISSOURI. 

The year 1821 is a memorable one in the history of America. 
In that year three great events occurred of far reaching import- 
ance to our country ; Mexico achieved its independence, the Santa 
Fe trail was opened, and Missouri was admitted to the Union. 
Proper weight has never been given to the tremendous influence 
upon the destiny of our country, of the development of the trans- 
Mississippi territory. Our histories have been too narrow and sec- 
tional; they have never dealt adequately with the important sub- 
ject of our relations to our Spanish neighbor on the south. We 
have never done full justice to the part that Missouri played in the 
development of our southwestern empire. We have never had our 
attention drawn to the results of the downfall of Spanish power 
on the American continent, and the withdrawal of the fear of 
hostile collisions with Spain along our international boundary to the 
southwest. It is not surprising that one of the most important 
dates in western history, that which marked the withdrawal of 
Spain, should coincide with that upon which the young giant com- 
monwealth Missouri, reached its majority. 

How much our national expansion westward across the great 
Mississippi River meant to the United States, and what an import- 
ant part it played in our national destiny ! It is filled with historic 
interest, the romance and the daring enterprise which marks the 
youth of a great nation; it gave play to those turbulent forces 
which are as common to the youth of nations as to the youth of 
men; it relieved us from the pressure of foreign intrigues, and 
drove back our only neighbor whose social and political institutions 
clashed with our own. Although the admission of Missouri, and 
the expansion in the southwest, was looked upon with disfavor 
in New England and on the Atlantic seaboard, and introduced into 
our politics the first sectional alignment, yet in the broad sweep 
of history it proved the death of sectionalism, and prevented the 
pent-up jealousies of the older commonwealths from wrecking the 
experiment of self-government by the new Republic. 

In 1921, the centennial of the admission of Missouri, her people 
will fittingly celebrate this great event, not solely as a matter of 
local interest or state pride, but as a great event in the growth of 
our Nation. We hope to tell the world something of the story of 
Missouri, in fitting form and with proper setting, and to show Mis- 
souri's true place in the epic poem of a nation's history; we hope 
to take a broad view of her place, her achievements, and her destiny, 
and tell the world a story of enterprise and daring which will find 
its echo in every village and homestead which dots the vast stretch 
between the Mississippi and the Pacific ; we hope to tell of the Santa 
Fe Trail, of the settlement and conquest of Texas, of the redemption 
of Oregon, of the exploitation of the golden wealth of California, 
of the conquest of the Rockies, and the subjugation of the pitiless 
desert, of vast prairies turned into wheat fields, of the buffalo 
ranges covered with high grade cattle, of the mines opened in the 
mountains, of the irrigation to water the valleys of death, of the 
hydro-electric power and stored energy, which like Aladdin's Lamp, 
needs only to be touched to produce wonders. 

WILIJAM PATTERSON BORLAND. 
—43— 



MISSOURI, THE MOTHER OF EMPIRES 

"Missouri is the inotlier of empires. Siie is, and has been from 
the days of her earliest infanoy, a land of darinjj;, enterprise, and 
ronianee. Her history is a rich field for the future statesman, 
historian, and poet." 

The House being in Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and 
having under consideration joint resolution (H. J. Res. 14) approving the constitutions 
formed by the constitutional conventions of the Territories of New Mexico and 
Arizona, May 22, 1911. 

Mr. Borland said: 

Mr. Chairman: By this measure provision is made to admit to statehood 
Arizona and New Mexico, being the last Territories in the contiguous stretch 
of Continental United States to be admitted to the sisterhood of States. 

My sympathies are in favor of their admission. I have always believed, 
and now believe, in the right of local self-government as a fundamental part 
of our political life. Whenever the people of any Territory are able and willing 
to bear the expense and responsibilities of statehood they should have the 
right to elect their own officers and to govern themselves, subject only to the 
common bond of the Federal Union. This includes the right to form a consti- 
tution satisfactory to themselves and suitable to their needs. 

I am not at all sure that the power vested by the Federal Constitution in 
the Congress of the United States will permit this body, on account of the 
individual views of its members on governmental questions, to infringe upon 
that right of local self-government. 

I have no doubt that all inconsistencies or defects, if such exist, in the 
proposed constitutions will be cheerfully remedied by the people of the re- 
spective Territories and the admission as free and independent members of the 
Union happily consummated. I hope that two new stars will soon blaze forth 
in our national flag. [Applause.] 

It is impossible for a Representative from the Commonwealth of Missouri 
to approach the consideration of this question without being reminded of the 
remarkable part which Missouri has played in the acquisition, settlement, and 
development of these Territories. They are the twin daughters of the old 
Commonwealth of Missouri; that Commonwealth which has played the part 
of mother to all the great States of the trans-Mississippi country. Missouri 
is the mother of empires. She is, and has been from the days of her earliest 
infancy, a land of daring, enterprise, and romance. Her history is a rich field 
for the future statesman, historian, and poet. 

She is, to the trans-Mississippi country, the starting point of all civiliza- 
tion and progress; the Plymouth Rock and the Jamestown of our western 
history. 

She contained within herself the seed of the manifest destiny which car- 
ried the American flag from ocean to ocean. 

Missouri's connection with the history of New Mexico, embracing original- 
ly Arizona, was the necessary result of the position which she held with 
relation to all the territory west of the Mississippi. She is not the eldest child 
of the Louisiana Purchase, but her central position at the juncture of the 
great Missouri Valley with the Mississippi, made her the center of civilization, 
the starting point of all exploration and development. Besides dominating 
and developing the Louisiana Purchase she helped to add three empires to the 
American flag, Texas, Oregon, and California, with all of the States that 
have been carved from them. This year, 1911, which witnesses the coming of 
age of the last of her daughters, the twin Commonwealths New Mexico and 
Arizona, is the one hundredth anniversary of the year when Missouri herself 
was erected into a self-governing Territory. In 1811, just 100 years ago, the 
name Missouri was first applied to a definite district. [Applause.] She is 
celebrating her own struggles toward self-government in commemorating the 
triumph of her twin daughters. 

The earliest settlement of white men on Missouri soil was at St. Genevieve, 
by the French in 1735, forty years before Bunker Hill. In quick succession St. 
Charles and St. Louis were founded. These French were hunters, trappers, 
and small farmers of a simple, brave, and pastoral character. They dealt 
with the Indians without fraud and without bloodshed, and probably saved 

—44— 



the young community from the horrors of the Indian massacres which have so 
stained the early progress of all of the other American States. Although 
Louisiana passed legally under the rule of Spain in 1763, yet her character 
and institutions remained French of the best provincial type. 

In 1797 the wilderness hunter, Daniel Boone, who had already performed 
marvels of human endurance and daring in his exploration of Kentucky and 
Tennessee, was invited to Missouri. He agreed with the Spanish governor to 
bring a colony of Americans and settle them west of the Mississippi, and he 
kept his agreement. His settlement was in what is now Warren County, about 
twenty miles west of St. Louis, and was considered a remote outpost of the 
white man. This tiny settlement, however, was the beacon light which pro- 
claimed to all the world that the American had crossed the Mississippi, and 
that there was no stopping place and no turning back for the restless tide of 
civilization. [Applause.] 

When the infant Missouri had scarcely learned to toddle she was already 
rambling over the plains and exploring the lands of the West. In 1804 Daniel 
Boone's two sons learned of a salt lick 150 miles to the westward, up the great 
Missouri Valley. Salt was then as precious as gold to the early pioneer and 
was worth risking life and fortune for. The same year that the American flag 
was raised over upper Louisiana the two brothers were manufacturing salt at 
Boone's lick, in what is now known as Howard County. The wilderness was 
being conquered step by step. In 1805 upper Louisiana, which was originally 
attached to Indian Territory, was detached and given a separate governor, 
although without the right of self-government. Americans began to pour in by 
the thousands. The peaceful and pastoral French were astonished by these 
eager, land-hungry, speculating, boisterous Americans. Before the change of 
Government land had been free and could be had for the asking without sur- 
vey and without fencing; now land values began to soar, surveys must be 
made, formal grants and deeds were demanded, and speculation was rife. The 
restless and insatiable passion of the Anglo-Saxon for land and for speculation 
was running its riot in the blood of all western pioneers. 

A few days ago a great newspaper of the West published a fanciful sketch 
portraying what might have happened if Jefferson had been a standpatter and 
had refused to embrace the opportunity to acquire the Louisiana purchase. It 
presents an attractive field for fancy, but Jefferson was not a standpatter. He 
was keenly alive to the irresistible sweep of American destiny. 

Those who have represented Jefferson as being reluctantly forced by cir- 
cumstances into the Louisiana purchase have made a great historical mistake. 
His whole soul was in it, and he saw with the eyes of a statesman the un- 
controllable impulse that would carry Americans beyond any artificial barriers 
that might be erected by law. 

In May, 1804, under the active direction of President Jefferson, Lewis and 
Clark left St. Louis, and, with a tiny band of daring white men, explored the 
Missouri River to its farthest source, nestling under the peaks of the Rockies, 
1,900 miles away. They then advancevd across the frozen passes and through 
barren sierras down to the valley of the Columbia, and gazed out upon the 
Pacific Ocean, like new Balboas, bearing not bloodshed, but peace and progress, 
science and civilization. [Applause.] These two heroes and their little band 
returned to St. Louis in the summer of 1806, and transmitted to President 
Jefferson a faithful and accurate report of their journey. Meriwether Lewis 
had been his private secretary. The whole expedition was the personal work 
of Jefferson. This report, which time has shown to have been singularly free 
from the almost universal fault of explorers — boastful lying and exaggerated 
misstatement — has been of incalculable value to the Nation. It told of a new 
world and rang like a clarion note in the ears of every enterprising American 
youth. 

In 1805-6 another hardy spirit, Zebulon Pike, started from St. Louis, and 
explored, in turn, the headwaters of the Mississippi, the headwaters of the 
Red River, and the passes of the Rocky Mountains. In 1808 Fort Osage was 
established on the Missouri River, in what is now Jackson County, within 20 
miles of the present site of Kansas City, and George C. Sibley was placed in 
charge, as agent, to trade with the Indians. In the same year the first news- 
paper west of the Mississippi was established at St. Louis — the Missouri 
Gazette, now the St. Louis Republic. By 1810 extensive settlements of Ken- 
tuckians were being made in the very heart of Missouri, in what came to be 
known as Boone's Lick country, now comprised in Howard and Cooper Coun- 

—45— 



ties. These settlers were the highest type of American pioneers — men who 
feared neither man nor nature, who were equal to any combat, who brought 
their families and their live stock, as well as their rifles and their axes; men 
who could build their own houses, kill their own food, raise their own crops, 
protect their own homes, and govern their own community. The world has 
probably never seen a higher development of the possibilities of the Anglo- 
Saxon race for native resourcefulness and self-reliance. 

At this time the infant Commonwealth began to long for self-government, 
and chafed under a rule which was practically that of a military governor. 
It was not possible for men of such ideals to submit long to a government by 
appointment. We find that a sterling Democratic Congressman, Hon. John 
Rhea, of Tennessee, appeared as the champion and spokesman for the infant 
Commonwealth. I will quote some interesting extracts from the annals of 
Congress: 

On November 8, 1811: On motion of Mr. Rhea, the petition of sundry inhabitants 
of the Territory of Loaisiana, presented on the 6th day of January, 1810, was referred 
to a select committee. 

lOn Thursday, November 14, 1811: Mr. Rhea, chairman of the committee ap- 
pointed on the 8th instant, presented a bill for the government of the Territory of 
Liouisianii, which was re;id t^vlce and committed to the Committee of the Whole 
on Monday next. 

On Thursday, December 5, 1811: The Speaker laid before the House sundry resolu- 
tions adopted at the meeting- of a number of the inhabitants of the city of St. Louis, in 
the Territory of Louisiana, expressive of their wishes that the second grade of Terri- 
torial government may be extended to the said Territory; that the judges of the gen- 
eral court be required by law to have some permanent interest in the welfare of the in- 
habitants and to reside in the Territory; that additional and more equitable provisions 
be made in favor of the claimants to the lands of the Territory; and that the limits of 
the Territory may be more clearly defined, which were referred to the Committee of 
the Whole on the bill providing for th governmiCnt of said Territory. 

This has the genuine American ring, and is the sturdy demand of free men 
for self-government. Notice that they are tired of absentee officials and want 
their rulers to be compelled to reside m the Territoiy and have some permanent 
interest therein. This movement was not without opposition, however, as is 
shown by the following extract of December 7, 1811: 

Mr. Pleasants presented a remonstrance to a petition of sundry inhabitants of St. 
Louis, in the Territory of Louisiana, stating the many injuries and inconveniences 
which would result from a change in their form of government, and praying that no 
alteration be made in their said form of government. Referred to the Committee of the 
Whole on the bill providing for the government of said Territory. 

Notice that the standpatter was present even then. You have seen him in 
this debate all the way through; men who do not want any change in any 
form of government and do not want anything new tried. 

However, the movement went steadily forward. On April 1, 1812 — 

The House resumed, as in Committee of the Whole, the consideration of the bill re- 
specting the government of Louisiana. Mr. Rhea moved to amend the bill by striking 
out sixty thousand — the number of souls entitling the Territory in the future to become 
a State — and to insert in lieu thereof thirty-five thousand ; motion negatived. The 
committee arose without debate and reported the bill with its amendment, in which the 
House concurred. TTie bill was then ordered to be engrossed for the third reading. 
On April 9, 1812— 

The House proceeded to consider the engrossed bill providing for the government of 
the Territory of Louisiana, when Mr. McKee moved that said bill be postponed until 
the first Monday in December next; negatived. The question was then taken that the 
said bill do pass; and resolved in the affirmative. 

On May 21, 1812— 

The amendments of the Senate to the bill providing for the government of the Ter- 
ritory of Louisiana were read and concurred in with an amendment. 

And thus upper Louisiana, or a portion thereof, became a territory of the 
second grade under the name of Missouri. At this time Congress recognized 
three grades of Territories. The lowest form of government, which had existed 
in upper Louisiana previous to this time, was that of a governor and three 
judges, appointed by the President, who exercised supreme executive, legisla- 
tive, and judicial power. The second grade of government, which was created 
by the act of 1812, established a separate judiciary, and provided that the 
lower branch of the legislative assembly be elected by the people; the upper 
branch, or council, remaining appointive. 

The year 1811 is memorable also for another thing. In December of that 
year, while the people of the infant Territory were clamoring for self-govern- 
ment, that they might conquor the wilderness, a tremendous force was coming 
to their aid. The steamer New Orleans, the first steamboat ever built west of 
the Allegheny Mountains, made a successful trip by inland water from Pitts- 
burg to New Orleans. The power of steam was about to invade the West. The 

—46— 



day of the flatboat and the dugout canoe was over — savagery must roll back 
beaten in the unequal strife with civilization and inventive genius. 

'The War of 1812 with England could not disturb the far-off settlements 
west of the Mississippi, but the close of that struggle and the weight that it 
lifted from the breasts of the American people, accelerated the wave of progress 
and immigration. By 1815 a steady stream of American immigrants, mainly 
from the South, was pouring into the West. This year a road, known as the 
Boones Lick Road, was surveyed from St. Charles to Old Franklin. 

Up that road came the advancing army of immigration — mule teams, 
horse teams, ox teams, handcarts — everything that could carry men, women, 
and children and household goods. Ahead marched the sovereign of the little 
family kingdom, with his rifle on his shoulder, ready to subdue the wilderness. 

In 1816 Missouri was advanced to the third and highest grade of Terri- 
tory. By this change she was given the right to elect both branches of her 
legislative assembly and to engage in general legislation necessary to self- 
government. The first act of her new legislature was to adopt in large meas- 
ure the statutes of Virginia. In so doing she adopted also, by formal act, the 
common law of England as the basis of her jurisprudence. This act is mem- 
orable, for it was the first time that the common law had thus been planted 
by the free will of a self-governing people upon alien soil. The original British 
territory in America, embraced within the Thirteen Colonies, extended, at least 
by a fiction of law, as far west as the Mississippi River. The eastern half of 
the United States may be said to have acquired the common law of England 
as a part of its colonial inheritance, but our Missouri immigrants earned this 
great body of the law across the Mississippi to a land where it had never ex- 
isted and supplanted with it the Spanish law there dominant. By the statute 
of 1816 Missouri adopted the common law of England and all acts of Parlia- 
ment of a general nature, not local to the Kingdom of Great Britain, passed 
prior to the fourth year of the reign of James I. As you know, the fourth year 
of James I was 1606, one year prior to the first permanent settlement of Eng- 
lishmen within the bounds of the United States at Jamestown, Va. We took 
our com.mon law direct from the pure fountainhead as it existed before the 
Colonies were established, unpolluted by the colonial strife and discrimination 
which followed. 

In 1817, on the 2d of August, the steamer General Pike arrived at St. 
Louis, and navigation of the Mississippi by steam was an accomplished fact. 
Two years later, in May, 1819, the steamboat Independence first disturbed the 
age-long solitude of the Missouri River and made a successful trip from St. 
Louis to Franklin. This was the year of the great financial stringency, but it 
could not affect men who raised more than they could eat and who were living 
in a land of abundance, where the gratification of their physical wants was a 
sure reward of energy and courage. The great need of these men was trans- 
portation, and the scream of the steam whistle answered the cry of their souls 
for some power to take their goods out to the market and to bring in the 
refinements of civilization. 

Statehood was the next demand. On August 10, 1821, Missouri was ad- 
mitted into the Union after a bitter contest that shook American institutions 
to their very foundations. She continued the storm center of political life for 
40 years. The political strife in which she was bom and in which she grew 
and strengthened never for one moment, however, checked her advance, either 
in internal development or in her dominating influence over the settlement of 
the West. The first constitution of Missouri, framed in 1820, was a marvel of 
constitution making. It was drafted by a convention of 41 members, who met 
in St. Louis and worked for one month. The total expense of the convention 
was $26.25 for stationery, and it framed a constitution which took effect with- 
out submission to the people and governed the State for 45 years. 

The lusty infant had now grown to maturity. Missouri was a State and 
could enter upon her career of empire building. 

The first act of the new State legislature was to elect two brilliant men to 
the United States Senate, David Burton and Thomas H. Benton. 

Benton's power as an orator, his tireless energy, his tremendous personal 
force, his indomitable will, his intense democracy, and, above all, his wonder- 
ful faith in the manifest destiny of the West made him one of the remarkable 
characters of American history. Such qualities would balance more faults than 
Benton possessed. For 30 years he stood in the Senate as the champion of the 

—47— 



great West. He was the incarnate voice of the West, with its great needs and 
its restless power. Daily he fought its battles in that arena of intellectual 
gladiators. [Applause.] To him the manifest destiny that should carry our 
flag from ocean to ocean was no idle fancy; it was a religion; he lived it in 
every fiber of his intense nature. The West owes him a debt which has never 
been measured, and no historian has yet done justice to the matchless services 
to the Union of Thomas H. Benton. [Applause.] 

About the year 1821 the first successful expedition is said to have been 
made to New Mexico over the Santa Fe Trail by one William Becknell, from 
the town of Old Franklin. There may have been earlier expeditions — Beck- 
nell's claim to fame is disputed — but it is certain that by the year 1822 the 
Santa Fe Trail was well established. It then had its northern terminus at 
Independence, in Jackson County, Mo. For a quarter of a century this great 
international highway stretched its 900 miles across the blazing plains be- 
tween the little Missouri village and the strange land to the southwest. It 
had a peculiar attraction for the ambitious, the resolute, and the daring. The 
men who operated this wonderful traffic were drawn from the pioneer life of 
Missouri. Their vocation made demands upon them which have rarely been 
equaled in human history. This was no place for the weakling, the indolent, or 
the vicious. When a train was ready to start from Independence on its long 
and perilous journey it must be manned by a crew of picked men. No super- 
fluous men could be carried and no unnecessary mouths could be fed. The 
combination of qualities demanded of these men was surprising. They must 
be riflemen, quick, cool, and unerring, absolute strangers to fear, yet cautious 
and watchful as the savage; they must be teamsters, skilled in the knowledge 
of horseflesh, able to care for their beasts, not only with the broad sympathy 
of the true horseman, but with the consciousness that their very lives depended 
upon the safety and efficiency of the horses; they must be men of powerful 
muscle, able to handle tremendous loads of freight and to pack and repack the 
great wagons; they must be plainsmen and skilled in all knowledge of wood- 
craft, able to track their way across the boundless deserts and read the wilder- 
ness like an open book; they must be merchants, able to judge correctly what 
goods could be profitably carried and what the trade demanded, and of suffi- 
cient skill and education to balance the expenses, profits, losses, and risks of 
the enterprise; they must be self-reliant in every emergency and patient in 
every adversity, surmounting with indomitable will dangers and difficulties 
impossible to foresee or to estimate. Romance can find no richer field than 
this marvelous old trail, which has no counterpart in the history of the world, 
has never had, and can never have. It is one of those brilliant pictures which 
adorn the gallery of history, whose colors will fade unless they are caught and 
fixed by the gifted hand of some master genius. In this Santa Fe Trail is 
found the key of the subsequent exploration and development of the West. It 
was the cradle of daring, of enterprise, and of liberty. The men who made it 
were the men who won and who governed in the rapidly succeeding years great 
Commonwealths and who brought vast empires under the Stars and Stripes. 

In 1824-25 an event occurred of tremendous importance to the young State 
of Missouri. A celebrated German author by the name of Gottfried Duden 
traveled through St. Charles, Warren, and Montgomery Counties, in Missouri, 
in company with Daniel M. Boone, a son of the great hunter. On his return to 
Germany Herr Duden wrote a very remarkable book describing the new coun- 
try. This book directed the attention of all intelligent Germans to this coun- 
try, with the result that an enormous German immigration set in to that part 
of Missouri. Germans are proverbial home makers and home builders. With 
their integrity and their thrift they add enormously to the stability of any 
community. From that day to this German immigration to Missouri has been 
a steady stream. The German immigrants, unlike some late comers from other 
countries, are home makers who become at once a part of their adopted State. 
They are not of the transient, shifting species, but every German family is an 
addition to the economic strength of the community. This visit of an intellec- 
tual German to America has had a far-reaching influence on the history of 
Missouri, to which but little credit has been attached. 

From 1822 to 1836 the great empire of Texas was being reclaimed by 
Americans who were largely Missourians. Old Moses Austin undertook the 
first plan to take American settlers into Texas. He returned to his home in 
Missouri, where he died, and is buried near the beautiful city of Potosi, in 

—48— 



Washington County. His work was taken up by his son, Stephen F. Austin, 
who became a leader in the subsequent fight for freedom of Texas and a hero 
among the race of heroes which that giant land called forth. During these 
year^ thousands of Missourians poured into Texas, until at the time that Texas 
achieved her independence, in 1835, it was said that there was scarcely a 
family in Missouri that did not have one or more of its members in Texas. 

In 1836, through the efforts of Senators Benton and Linn, the Platte pur- 
chase was added to Missouri to extend her northwest corner to the Missouri 
River. This was done in spite of the Missouri compromise, which provided that 
no more slave territory should be added north of the southern boundary of 
Missouri. This is probably the richest section of its size in the State, or in 
the entire country. It contains one town, an agricultural town of 900 inhab- 
itants, which is the richest community per capita in the world. Platte City 
has a wealth of $1,000 for every man, woman, child, or baby in its limits. i 

In 1837 Col. Gentry assembled his Missouri regiment at Columbia and 
marched to the Seminole War in Florida. In this year, also, a general panic 
swept over the United States. The Whigs were not slow to attribute this panic 
to the existing Democratic administration and the fight which it had made 
upon the Bank of the United States five years before. On this issue they 
carried the election all over the country in the succeeding presidential campaign 
of 1840. We now know that the panic was caused by an era of overspeculation 
and frenzied finance such as has been the cause of every panic this country 
has ever suffered. As Missouri had not indulged in any overspeculation or 
frenzied finance, as she had not pledged her credit in wildcat schemes to irre- 
sponsible promoters, she was not severely affected by the panic. The Whigs 
were not successful in Missouri; she remained true to the pole star of her 
Democratic faith. 

About this time there came upon the stage of western history a romantic 
character — the brilliant young explorer, John C. Fremont, whose name is in- 
separably linked with the great work of empire building. Fremont was a 
young Army officer, who won the love of as brilliant a woman as America has 
ever produced — Jessie Benton, the daughter of Missouri''s great Senator. In 
1838-39 Fremont had begun his career as an under officer in the exploration 
party of the country lying between the upper Mississippi and the Missouri 
Rivers. This expedition was successful, and its results were valuable. He 
returned to St. Louis and had just reached the happy climax of his courtship 
of Miss Benton when he received an order to explor-e the sources of the Des 
Moines River. His sweetheart bade him go, as she did on every subsequent 
occasion when duty and fame were beckoning to him. He made this trip in 
1841. The next year — 1842 — he encountered in St. Louis that dauntless young 
Missourian, Kit Carson. Carson had been brought as a baby one year old from 
Kentucky to Howard County, Missouri, and grew up in the Boones Lick coun- 
try. When a mere boy he left there, drawn by the powerful fascination of the 
Santa Fe Trail, and for many years was the foremost explorer and the most 
daring plainsman of all the West. Upon his meeting with Fremont in St. 
Louis he became the guide of Fremont's exploration of the Rocky Mountains. 
In 1843 Fremont made his third expedition. He says that he started from 
"the little town of Kansas on the Missouri frontier" and explored the route to 
Oregon and California. This is probably the first mention in history of "the 
little town of Kansas," now the great metropolis of Kansas City, on the 
Missouri border. 

Missouri was called upon at this time to bear the brunt of the fight for 
Oregon. When the Santa Fe Trail became well established from Independence 
one branch of it ran northwest to Oregon. For 100 miles west from Independ- 
ence the Oregon Trail was identical with the Santa Fe Trail. It is said that 
at this point there was a stake driven into the ground, upon which was a 
small board bearing the simple words "Road to Oregon." This was an offhand 
way of mentioning the fact that 2,100 miles away were the boundless resources 
of an unknown country. Over this trail the restless Americans pressed on. 
The country vaguely known as Oregon, and which embraced the three great 
States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, was occupied under a joint claim 
of title by the United States and Great Britain. As long as it was unknown 
and presumably worthless this vague claim was sufficient, but when the path- 
finder had blazed the way it was no longer unknown to the Americans. In 
1842 a huge caravan of over 1,000 Americans made the journey overland from 
Missouri to Oregon, taking with them their wives and their children, their 

—49— 



flock? and their herds, carrying their rilfes on their shoulders and their 
spades in the great canvas-top wagons. In the following year 2,000 Americans 
crossed the trail from Missouri to Oregon. It became urgent that the Ameri- 
can Government secure a good title and definite boundaries to the possessions 
of this country in Oregon. The issue was crystallized by the Democrats in 
the campaign of 1844 by the cry of "54 40 or fight." Apparently the Demo- 
crats have never been adverse to expansion when the territory was available 
for settlement of white men and could be incorporated into the Union. This 
corrects the historical falsehood that the Democrats as a political party were 
in favor of acquiring territory only for the purpose of the extension of slavery. 
On this issue Polk defeated the brilliant Henry Clay. All the country could 
see that upon the result of the election depended not only the fate of Oregon, 
but the fate of the new republic of Texas, which was then knocking for ad- 
mission. [Applause.] Missouri followed Polk even against her dazzling idol 
Henry Clay. The march of events was rapid now. In 1845 Texas was admitted 
to the Union. In 1846 Polk asked Thomas H. Benton to father the Oregon 
treaty in the Senate. The result was that the title to Oregon was established 
and the compromise boundary fixed where it now exists. This same year 
marked the opening of the War with Mexico. 

At this time Fremont made his third expedition to California. This was 
the first exploration he had made under Governmental authority. The earlier 
ones are said to have been made at private expense — his own and that of 
patriotic citizns of St. Louis. He owed his governmental authority to the un- 
ceasing work of his father-in-law. Senator Benton, against the combined 
opposition in political life in Washington, not only of Benton's enemies and 
Fremont's enemies, but the enemies of the settlement of the West. 

It is said that Benton had a tremendous fight to get Fremont started on 
that expedition. Such men as Daniel Webster brought the whole force of 
their tremendous intellectual artillery against the exploration of California 
and the West. They denounced it as foolhardy and dangerous, as calculated 
to break up the Union, as trying to lead away the settlers of the older States, 
as reducing the value of agricultural land east of the Mississippi, and every 
possible ground. 

I think that it was on this occasion that, after Fremont had made his 
plans and assembled his party and Tv^as on the point of leaving St. Louis, his 
enemies in Washington, by a temporary triumph, succeed'.sd in having his 
recall issued. The recall was sent to St. Louis and fell into the hands of his 
heroic wife. Mrs. Fremont, with the wholly illogical, but sublime, heroism of 
such women, promptly decided not to communicate the recall to her husband 
and thus ruin the plans and blast the dreams of which she had been such an 
earnest sharer. She allowed her husband to go on his way with his little band, 
technically a traitor, in flat disobedience to his Government. He reached Cali- 
fornia in January, 1846, before the outbreak of hostilities with Mexico, but the 
war was at this time plainly impending. The Spanish governor ordered him 
to leave without delay. Instead of complying with this order, he and his little 
band of sixty men hoisted the flag of the United States on the soil of Cali- 
fornia March 9, 1846, where it has ever since remained. [Applause.] 

War with Mexico was declared April 13, 1846. Immediately Gen. Kearny, 
a Missourian and an officer in the United States Army, in command at Fort 
Leavenworth, was given authority to raise two mounted regiments for service 
in Mexico. The first regiment to respond was the celebrated First Missouri 
Cavalry of Col. Alexander W. Doniphan, a regiment that contained more 
heroic men, more famous names, among its roll of privates and subaltern 
officers than any other similar orgafiization known in American history. 

With this regiment, gathered wholly from the western part of Missouri, 
and a small force of Regulars, Gen. Kearny began his march, without supplies, 
without reserve forces, and without lines of communication, overland down the 
Santa Fe Trail into the heart of the enemy's country. The 900 miles were 
covered by the middle of August. On August 22 Gen. Kearny formally took 
possession, in the name of the United States, of all of New Mexico, then in- 
cluding Arizona, and established a civil government in the name and under 
the authority of the United States. In this instance also it is probable that a 
Missourian exceeded his legal authority, for no territory had been acquired or 
demanded from Mexico except the r-ight to the peaceful annexation of Texas. 
In the midst of international war, civil strife, and savage depredations this 
little band of Missourians erected and consecrated the sacred lemple of the 

—50— 



law. Gen. Kearny, a Missourian, promulgated the first constitution, or bill of 
rights, of New Mexico, and with it a code of laws drafted by Col. Doniphan 
and a brilliant young Missouri lawyer in his regiment, Willard P. Hall. A 
Missourian, Charles Dent, was appointed the first civil governor; another 
Missourian, of budding greatness, Francis P. Blair, was made attorney general. 
This was the first acquisition of foreign soil as the result of the War with 
Mexico. It is said to have been technically unauthorized, but the flag there 
planted never came down, and the laws there promulgated have never ceased 
to exist. 

The subsequent history of this expedition is well known. Gen. Kearny, 
with a small force, started overland for California. Col. Doniphan, with his 
1,000 Missourians, marched into the heart of old Mexico. Before he left Santa 
Fe Col. Sterling Price had arrived with the second regiment of Missourians 
and held possession of the Territory, maintaining peace and order until it was 
formally ceded to the United States. There is a curious sidelight upon 
American ideals of government in this early settlement of New Mexico. The 
Navajo Indians had for many years been carrying on a destructive and savage 
warfare against the Mexicans. Col. Sterling Price was appealed to to protect 
the citizens of New Mexico against the Indians. He promptly sent a small 
force under Capt. John W. Reid, afterwards a member of Congress from my 
district, who pursued the Indians to their mountain fastness and subdued 
them in a pitched battle. 

The astonishment of the Indians was great. When their chief submitted 
to Capt. Reid he told him, through an interpreter — 

We do not understand why you Americans fight with us. You come liere to fight 
the Mexicans and you are fighting- them. We also are fighting tlie Mexicans, and 
why did you not let us fight them as niuch as you do? Wlay have you pursued us here 
into our villages? 

Reid's answer was short, sharp, and thoroughly American. He said: 
The Mexicans were our enemies, but they have been subdued and have submitted 
to us. "We feel obliged to protct their lives and their property from any danger what- 
soever, and we can not let you continue your war. 

The close of the war in 1848 brought under the American flag the magnifi- 
cent domain of California, comprising all of four States and parts of three 
others. Thus in three years from the foundation laid by Missouri exploration 
and enterprise three great empires — Texas, Oregon, and California — came 
under the Stars and Stripes. 

In 1849 gold was discovered in California, and the rush of settlers to the 
Pacific coast began. The West presented a busy scene in those days. The 
Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers were teeming with boats. The river towns 
along the Missouri, and especially those close to the great bend at the western 
border of the State, were crowded with teams, mule, horse, and ox, and the 
huge and picturesque canvas-covered schooners that were used in freighting 
across the plains. A ceaseless army of Americans made this hazardous trip 
across the plains, through the mountain passes, and over the deserts to the 
golden land of California. Western Missouri was the last inhabited and settled 
portion of the country that they saw. Here they must gather their supplies and 
bid farewell to all hope of civilization and safety, unless they could win in the 
unequal battle against the forces of nature, wild and savage, both inanimate 
and animate. It is needless to say that Missourians led this mass of emigrants 
and gave color and character to the whole. Joe Bowerfe and his brother Ike 
have become immortal types of this great exodus. For more than half a cen- 
tury, down to the present time, the prevailing name on the Pacific coast for all 
newcomers from the Central West is Pike or Pike County. They seem to 
assume that those who travel across the plains are "All the way from Pike." 

The land-title abstract books in the western part of the State of Missouri 
show that in the numerous families of those days there were always some of 
the sons — Johns, Williams, Henrys, and Stephens, and so forth — who were re- 
ported as missing, supposed to have died, single and unmarried, in California. 
Their record is written all through the land titles of Missouri, and their bones 
are supposed to be whitening on the way across the great desert. 

Some gentlemen seem to be afraid of the recall of public officers. The 
recall in some form has been exercised by the people and always will be ex- 
ercised by the people. [Applause.] The permanent political power can reside 
nowhere but in the people, and if they make mistakes, it may be said that the 
power to make mistakes and to suffer by them is of the very essence of self- 
government. The greatest man who ever represented Missouri in either branch 

—51— 



of Congress was practically recalled. Thomas H. Benton clored his career by 
a recall. In 1849 the legislature passed the Jackson resolution, instructing 
Benton how to vote on the question of unionism and slavery. Benton refused, 
and went home to submit his case to the people. He went from one end of 
that State to the other, in the midst of that gathering storm of political strife, 
championing the cause in which he believed. He went down to defeat, but 
does any man say that such defeat left a stain on Benton ? Can any man say 
that a representative of the people who does what he believes is right and 
sticks to it can be stained on the pages of history by subsequent events? 
Why, there is no more stain on the fame of Benton because he went down to 
defeat than there is on that of Robert E. Lee because he went down to defeat. 
It is in the man, in his belief in the cause for which he fights, s 

The tremendous political storm which accompanied Benton's recall I can 
liken to nothing so much as an incident that occurred about twenty years ago 
in the harbor of Samoa. A phenomenal hurricane occurred in that part of the 
Pacific, which swept all of the small craft away and carried them out to de- 
struction. In the harbor of Apia lay seven war vessels, as I recollect — one 
English, three German, and three American. Even the great warships, shel- 
tered as they were in the harbor, were not able to withstand the storm. All of 
these war vessels were wrecked except two; the British and one German ves- 
sel escaped. There was one war vessel, I have forgotten whether German or 
American, but I think German, which made an heroic fight against fate. Its 
commander had every available man, naked to the waist, shoveling in the coal 
and keeping the furnaces at white heat, getting up every pound of steam that 
the great old ship could muster, and she was headed out into the teeth of the 
storm. She had her anchor sunk in the mud of the bay, but the storm increased 
in fury, and in spite of every effort it was seen that she was dragging her 
anchor and was certainly going down to destruction. All the other vessels 
were straining every nerve to save themselves; they had neither time nor 
power to help. When the commander of this noble ship saw that she was 
doomed, that every human effort had failed, he ran his colors up to the top of 
his mast, he called every Jackie on deck and had them man the yardarms, he 
brought up his marine band and stationed it on the forecastle, and then they 
struck up the national air. As they drifted back past the remaining vessels 
there blared out above the roar of the storm the notes of the national air. 
Every man within sight knew the ship was going down to certain destruction. 
The English and the American sailors rushed to the sides of their vessels, and 
above the shrieking and howling of the tempest was heard cheer after cheer 
of honest, courageous, human hearts hailing those who could face the in- 
evitable and face it like men. [Applause.] 

When old Benton saw the maelstrom of American political strife had 
carried away the small vessels, was sweeping away the little men, the time- 
servers, the trimmers, the pickers, and stealers that get into politics, and that 
it was a fight to the death with titanic forces, he put on every pound of steam 
possible, he bared his brow to the storm and worked like a hero to save him- 
self. But when he found he could not resist the tide of public opinion, he 
nailed his colors to the mast and went down to defeat with band playing and 
his flag still flying. I would not say that only a man big enough to do that is 
big enough to go to the U'nited States Senate, but I say that a man that can 
do that is big enough to be a Senator from Missouri. 

During the decade that followed, Missouri continued her efforts in colo- 
nizing, settling, and developing the great empire whicji had so suddenly been 
brought under the protection of the American flag. It was a wild region, 
inhabited only by roving savages. It is not strange that for many years tho 
older communities of the East refused to believe seriously that the vast 
stretches of the trans-Mississippi country could be made the home of the 
white man. The conviction was very general in the East that not within any 
reasonable period of human life could the great, barren West be reclaimed. 
This conviction was not without reasonable foundation, but those who held to 
this belief failed to take into account the abiding faith of the people of the 
Missouri Valley in their own tremendous powers of colonization. Missouri has 
been an empire builder from the beginning of her history. She had been 
working miracles of exploration and settlement from the very dawn of the 
century. After 50 years of dazzling success she could not lose faith in her 
own power. In 1850 the building of the Missouri Pacific Railroad was begun at 
St. Louis. During the next eight years the St. Louis & San Francisco, the 

K2 



Iron Mountain, the North Missouri, and the Hannibal & St. Joe stretched their 
tiny arms westward from the Mississippi River, This was at the cost to the 
State of Missouri of $24,000,000, being the first and only expense of this kind 
which the people of Missouri, as a whole, ever authorized. 

When Kansas was thrown open for settlement in 1856, Missouri met her 
first defeat as a colonizing power. She undertook to colonize and settle Kansas, 
but without success. The singular result has been that from that day to this 
Missouri has continued to draw more from Kansas than from any other State 
in the Union. Very few Missourians go to Kansas, but thousands of Kansans 
go to Missouri every year. 

She gets the best blood and brains of Kansas, and they are good, too. 
Every good Kansan, when he gets rich, promptly moves to Missouri to enlarge 
the horizon of his business opportunity. 

The people of Missouri have always cherished a profound belief in the 
inherent right of every State to govern itself and regulate its own institutions. 
On the issue of "squatter sovereignty" Missouri was the only State, except 
New Jersey, to give its electoral vote to Stephen A. Douglas in the presidentiai 
election of 1860. Although a slaveholding State, her attachment to the Union 
was strong. When the dark clouds of the Civil War gathered over our devoted 
country, the storm broke with pitiless fury upon the State of Missouri. A man 
in the extreme North or one in the extreme South had little difficulty in 
choosing his political ground. He was carried along in the rush of the political 
opinion of his section. It cost something, however, to have political opinions 
in Missouri, and thousands of lives and millions of property were engulfed in 
the frightful maelstrom of civil strife. Her military strength was taxed as was 
that of no other State. Between 1861 and 1865 Missouri furnished 109,000 
men to the Union Army and 50,000 to the Confederate Army. The startling 
nature of these figures is apparent when we understand that she sent 47 per 
cent of all men of military age into the Union Army and 23 per cent of all; 
men of military age into the Confederate Army. More than 70 per cent of her 
fighting men were in the two armies. It is possible that large numbers en- 
tered the armies of the South of whom no record can be obtained. The ravages 
of the Civil War left deep scars on the fair breast of Missouri. Many years 
have passed since then, and each recurring springtide has spread its mantle of 
green over the wounds; summer has touched them with the gold of its harvest; 
autumn for a brief space revives the crimson glory until old winter brings the 
white flag of truce and spreads the snowy couch for the birth of a newer, 
better year. [Applause.] 

Most historians, for some reason or other, stop at the close of the Civil 
War. I do not know why this should be, unless that titanic struggle so stunned 
the muse of history that she is unable to resume the commonplace of peaceful 
progress. The highest ambition of the human soul is not realized in the de- 
struction of life and property, even in a noble cause. Greater is he who can 
create, develop and build up; he who can make two blades of grass grow where 
only one grew before. 'Tis as the poet has said about the destruction of the 
sacred oak: 

Thou can'st not censure more than we 

The vandal hand that laid thee low. 
For any fool can fell a tree 

But it takes a god to make one grow. 
[Applause.] 

In the half century that has followed the civil strife Missouri has not only 
healed her own wounds, but has sent forth her sons in ceaseless stream to all 
the Commonwealths of the western land. On the sun-baked plains and on the 
bleak mountains, where permanent human habitation was considered impos- 
sible, the divine alchemy of science has transmuted all the baser elements of 
stubborn nature into the gold of human progress. The desert has been taught 
to blossom like the rose, and the mountain fortresses have been carried by 
assault until they have received their invaders within their own bosoms and 
furnished them homes in fruitful valleys. Missouri's fair daughter, Oklahoma, 
came into the Union only four years ago, and now has a greater population and 
more electoral votes than half the New England States. Northern Texas, Colo- 
rado, Wyoming and Montana are being cultivated and developed by colonies of 
M ssourians. Missouri has given freely of her sons, and especially of her 
tillers of the soil. 

And what of the future ? Is her work closed with the admission to the 
Union of the last of her family, or is it just begun ? She can turn now to her 

—53— 



own development and gather up some of the scattered wealth that has been 
disregarded in the hurried march of progress. A scientific writer has stated 
that Missouri is one of the richest and, economically, the most nearly inde- 
pendent of any district in the known world. 

The extent and variety of resources in Missouri are remarkable. It is said 
that if a hostile army were to surround entirely the State and besiege it with 
the design of starving it into submission Missouri could subsist upon her own 
resources without aid from the outside world and maintain the highest degree 
of civilization known to man. Not only so, but the Missourians would have an 
enormous surplus of products to throw over the borders to their besieging foes. 
In the last decade, while the cities of Missouri have grown enormously, she has 
suffered a loss in her agricultural population. In spite of this, however, the 
increase in the value of her farm lands has been 102 per cent. Her mineral 
wealth can scarcely be estimated. One-third of her surface is underlain with 
inexhaustible deposits of coal. She contains the greatest zinc mines in the 
world and is an enormous producer of lead. She is the first in the production 
of nickel and an important factor in the production of copper, silver, iron, 
barytes, and cement. Her climate and soil seem to have been wonderfully 
adapted to the growth of the best grades of hardwood lumber, especially white 
oak and the beautiful black walnut that is now becoming so rare. The fruit- 
culture possibilities of the Ozark Mountains have well repaid the scientific 
study which is being devoted to this pursuit. Southern Missouri has long been 
known as the land of the big red apple, and now she is known as the land of the 
big red strawberry. The crop of strawberries and other small frait has become 
an enormous commercial asset. There are thousands of acres of lowlands in 
the southeast corner of the State, near the Mississippi River, that are being 
drained and cultivated. The richness of these reclaimed lands and their adap- 
tation to the culture of cotton are rapidly increasing the wealth of that section 
of the State. The conservation of natural resources in Missouri has just be- 
gun. In the past only the land easiest of cultivation was occupied, but now 
science is unlocking many treasui'e houses of inexhaustible wealth. There is at 
least a half million acres of bottom land along the Missouri River and its trib- 
utaries which, when reclaimed, will prove to be of inexhaustible fertility. The 
gentle slopes of the Ozark Mountains are the abode of both beauty and health. 
The death rate of the State is low and the measure of human efficiency is 
high. Missouri is the poultry queen. The value of her poultry product is far 
in advance of any other State or district in the world. 

In 1909 the faithful hen brought to the Missouri farmer $46,000,000. The 
Missouri hen could build the Panama Canal and pay the entire expense year 
by year without aid. She would be thoroughly willing to undertake this 
great public work at her own cost if it were not for the fact that the Missouri 
hog could dig the canal in three roots without stopping to grunt. It is unnec- 
essary to eulogize our old friend, the Missouri mule, our country's best reliance 
in both peace and war. In 1909 the total natural products of Missouri, not 
including, of course, her wealth of manufactures, was worth the enomious sum 
of $530,000,000. Of this amount $342,000,000 were surplus products that were 
sent to market, the balance being consumed or manufactured within the State. 

A short time ago the old capitol building of Missouri, at Jefferson City, 
which was constructed in 1837, was destroyed by fire. Missouri will erect a 
new capitol fully in keeping in size, value, and artistic beauty with the great- 
ness and wealth of the State. She can erect the most magnificent building in 
the world and furnish it complete with every convenience that modern science 
can suggest, or modem art can design, and all of it, down to the most minute 
detail, be the product of Missouri. Her own granite could lay the foundations; 
her building stone of beautiful shades could rear the lofty walls; her onyx and 
her marble could decorate the halls of legislation; her iron, lead, an4 zinc 
could furnish the metal work; her polished hard woods could luxuriously fit 
and furnish the offices and committee rooms; her native glass could add its 
crystal beauty; her cobalt and other minerals could paint the woodwork or 
emblazon upon glistening walls of Missouri plaster brilliant pictures of her 
romantic history, and in the sunlight above could shine the burnished dome of 
Missouri copper. 

For a century emigration has flowed from and through Missouri to fill the 
apparently insatiable demands of the West. Uncle Sam had a boundless ex- 
tent of free land which tempted the age-long land hunger of the white race. 
Today those free lands are gone. Uncle Sam has no more farms to give away, 

—54— 



except where the expense of irrigation must precede cultivation. The tide of 
white civilization has rolled westward, and ever westward, until at length it 
dashed itself against the shores of Far Cathay. It can go no farther, but must 
plant its standard forever in the greatest natural home of white civilization— 
the Mississippi Valley. 

Every man has his pet insanity, and I have mine. It is a profound and un- 
shakeable belief in the greatness of the Middle West. Nowhere in the known 
world is there such a vast expanse of fertile region under one government, ex- 
cept in Russia, and Russia is a hundred years behind us in development. The 
Mississippi Valley contains a wealth of natural resources surpassing in sober 
fact the far-famed riches of the Valley of the Nile. Missouri has a luxuriance 
of vegetation, that would make the vine-clad hills of Italy look like an arid 
desert. She has a variety of crops that would put to shame the fairest fields 
of fertile France. She has the forests and the mines, the cattle upon a thousand 
hills, 'and the mighty cities, where the smoke from countless factories rolls up 
like incense upon the altar of industry. With it all, she has a restless and in- 
domitable race peopling this vast empire; a race that has planted civilization 
in the wilderness, that has snatched victory from the jaws of defeat; that has 
conquered the savage, harnessed nature, and laughs at time, distance, and 
difficulties. [Applause.] 

With such an empire, and with such a race, what may she not hope? To 
her agricultural strength we will add commercial supremacy and financial inde- 
pendence. We will adorn her with learning from the humble district school to 
the lordly university. We will crown her with art, and music, and letters, and 
political science, and philanthropy, and all that beautifies, sweetens, and en- 
nobles human life. And high above the old Commonwealth we want to see 
wave once more the banner of Jeffersonian democracy, emblazoned with the 
people's motto: "Equal and exact justice to all, and special privileges to none." 
[Prolonged applause.] 



—55— 



FORT OSAGE 
First Settlement in Jackson County. 

Site marked "Fort Point," Lewis and Clark Map, 1804. 
Fort established September, 180S. 
Unofficially called Fort Clark. 
Officially christened "Fort Osage" Nov. 13, 1808. 
Evacuated June, 1813 (War of 1812). 
Established at Arrow Rock, 1813. 
Re-established on original site, 1816. 
Practically abandoned 1822. 
Officially dismantled 1827. 
In 1682 La Salle took possession, in the name of the King of 
France, of the vast territory now known as the Louisiana Purchase. 
And though the attention of the earliest Catholic missionaries and 
explorers had been drawn to the great natural resources abounding 
in that part of that territory, now called ''Missouri," nothing \yas 
done toward a permanent settlement on its soil until the founding 
of St. Genevieve, 1732-5. 

In 1764, Laclede and Chouteau, drawn by the possibilities of 
the fur trade in this quarter, founded a station a short distance 
north of St. Genevieve, also on the Mississippi, and named it St. 
Louis. They were unaware that they were settling on Spanish 
territory, and it was some months before news of the transfer to 
Spain, 1763, reached this frontier. In 1800 the tract was retroceded 
to France and, in 1804, by a straight cash transaction, transferred 
to the United States. Truly a monumental deal in realty. 

Probably in no other territory of the Union did the early ex- 
plorer find as large an Indian population, tribes of longer residence, 
or of less nomadic tendency, than did the pioneers of that wilder- 
ness, now called "Missouri." It is, however, with the chief of these 
several tribal divisions, the Osage nation (Wa-ca-ce, Wazhazhe, 
Ouchage, etc.) that this paper is interested. 

Attention is called to the fact that there were three branches 
of the Osages : 

The Great Osages Pa-he-tsi,i "Campers on the mountains" 

The Little Osages U-tseh-si, "Campers in the Lowlands" 

And the Arkansas Band San-tsu-kci, "Campers on the Highlands" 

The Arkansas branch were also called "Osage des Chenes" 
(Osage of the Oaks) ; "Chenes" suffering many perversions at the 
mercy of frontier pronunciation. 

The tribal division into "Great" and "Little" was at a remote 
period. Early records differ as to the date and cause of the event ; 
strangely enough the Indians, themselves, seem to be devoid of all 
tradition in this regard. The rise of the Arkansas Band is of 
recent history. For many years a monopoly of the trade with the 
Osage tribes had been held by Auguste Chouteau and his brother, 
Pierre. This monopoly was transferred to Manuel Lisa, a Spaniard, 
about 1800. Members of both original tribes, seceded, and eventu- 
ally settled on the Arkansas river, where Pierre Chouteau still 
owned the trading privileges with the Indians. Nearly one-half of 
the Great and Little tribes made this exodus. Cashe-segra, or "Big 
Track," was the nominal chief of this new branch of the Osage 
nation, the Arkansas Band, but Clermont (Iron Bird), or the "Man 
Who Builds Towns," was the greatest chief and greatest man of 

1 15th Annual Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 162. 

2 Houck's History of Missouri, Vol. II, p. 51. 

—56— 



that tribe. It seems that most of the chiefs over the Arkansas for 
a certain period, at least, were placed in power by Chouteau. 

At that time the villages of the Great and Little Osages were 
on the upper Osage river and its branches. As a nation, the Osages 
were the hereditary owners of that rich territory between the Mis- 
souri and Arkansas rivers, and west from the Mississippi. They 
had hunted, and fished, and built their "towns" on this area for 
centuries. The earliest explorers found them in possession. Their 
name means "strong-arm," probably in recognition of which, they 
always kept their right arm bare to the shoulder.^ 

The nation was composed of twenty-one clans. It seemed more 
closely connected with the Kaw tribe than any other division of 
their parental stock — the Siouan, Their religious beliefs were simi- 
lar and many of their customs. An interesting myth is auoted 
here regarding their origin ; it being the only such myth of Indian 
origin relating directly to the Missouri river. 

This myth- was printed in connection with the visit to France, 
in 1827, of six Osage Indians: 'They are in general, very hand- 
some men, very well made. Those who have come to visit France 
were not chosen for their beauty of form. After a very old tradi- 
tion established among them, they take their origin from a snail, 
who, from the borders of the Osage, where he lived, was carried 
away by a flood into the Missouri, and thrown out upon its banks. 
The heat of tiie sun having made him increase in size and become 
a man, he returned to his native country. A beaver disputed the 
possession of it with him, but everything arranged itself through 
his marriage with the daughter of the beaver. It is from this union 
that this tribe came. For a long time the Osages respected the 
lives of its maternal parents, the beavers. At present, when its 
skin is of such great value, they spare them no more, and they have 
concentrated all their family affection upon the snails, which are 
good for nothing." (A beaver skin about that time brought seven 
dollars.) 

While the Osage lived in peace with others of the same stock, 
as the Kaw, Oteo, Ponca and Quapaw, he was frequently at war 
with the Cherokees, or the Chickasaw, Creeks, Choctaws, loways, 
Sauks and Foxes. It was the Osage's boast that he had "never shed 
the blood of the white man." This was generally accepted by 
early travelers, and was generally true, after retrocession of the 
Territory by Spain to France. 

Louis Bringier in his travels among the tribe (1818), wrote: 
"Among the Osages there are some insubordinate stragglers, who 
commit depredations abroad; but in their villages, as in those of 
other tribes, a stranger is in more security than he would be in any 
civilized city." 

The Indian did not hesitate to chastise and start home- 
ward the white hunter found on what had been the Osage's own 
hunting grounds, for long generations; but, there had been no 
seated tribal hatied evinced toward the American, to whom he gave 
the universal Indian name of "Long Knives," or No-ya-tun-gar in 
the Osage tongue. Toward the Frenchman he was cordial. 

iPike Expedition. (Coues.) Vol. I, 368. 

2Kans. His. Coll. Vol. XIV:462. ("W. E. Connelly.) 

—57— 



He did not seem to regard the incoming- American as a menace 
to his own possessions. They loved their homes and tilled their 
fields.^ 

So it was, apparently with full confidence that the delegation 
of Osage chiefs and warriors visited Washington in 1804 and ob- 
tained a promise from the "Great Father," Thomas Jefferson, July 
12th, that they should have a fort and trading-station built near 
their "towns."- This was in 1804.^ Cahatonga, "White Hairs," 
was the principal chief of the Great Osage at this time. This was 
not his first visit from home. Flint, in his "Recollections," page 
155, mentions that this soubriquet, "White Hairs" had been won at 
the defeat of Maj.-General St. Clair in 1791. 

Two years later, 1806, a second delegation visited Washington 
with the same urgent entreaty. Again, the President promised to 
grant their wishes. However, it was not until 1808 that a move 
was made to redeem these promises. By that time, the amazing 
report of the Lewis and Clark expedition along the length of the 
Missouri river was drawing the eyes of the world to this quarter 
and its illimitable resources. May 17, 1808, the War Department 
sent the following instructions to Colonel Thomas Hunt at Fort 
Belief ontaine, near St. Louis: "The government having concluded 
to establish a trading-house on the Osage River .... this is to 
request you to establish a military post as a guard to each of those 

trading houses Each post ought to consist of 30 men 

A stockade work with a block-house ought to be erected with bar- 
racks, &c I shall request .... Genl. Clark to go with Mr. 

Sibley, the other agent, up the Osage River to aid him to fix on a 

suitable site for the house and post You will please to send 

with him a party of thirty men, under a suitable officer with in- 
structions to erect the necessary buildings and a blockctcie (?) 
work as soon as possible. 

(War Department Military Book No. 3.) 

The "Genl." Clark named was William Clark, who had been 
made a Brigadier-General, as a. reward for his services in the 
Lewis and Clark Expedition; he had also, in 1807, been made 
Indian Agent for this Tenitory. 

"Mr. Sibley"^ was George Champlin Sibley, who was in St. 
Louis as an employee of the Indian Department. Under the same 
date as above given, he received the following letter from Secre- 
tary of War, Henry Dearborn: "Your compensation as Agent at 
the factory at the Osage River will be 800 dollars a year salary 
and 365 dollars annually, in lieu of subsistence, with an allowance 
of 200 doPars as an outfit for the purchase of domestic utensils 
and 25 dollars annually for the same purchase."^ 

June 25th, General Clark wrote to the Department, remon- 
strating against establishing a fort at the mouth of the Osage, as 
it is navigable for only a short distance, and suggesting that "some 
situation on the Missouri above that river, would be more (illeg- 
ible) to the Osage tribe.*' 

iSee Pike's memorable expedition up the Osage River in 1806. Coues' ed. 
2Long's Expedition (Thwaites' ed.) Vol. XVI:273. 
HHouck's Hist, of Mo. Vol. I, p. 192. 

4Born in Mass. in 1782. 

•TFrom War Department files. 

tilbid. 

—58— 



On August 18th, Eli B. Clemson, Captain 1st Reg. U. S. Inf., 
first commander of the Fort, with his men and Mr. Sibley, the 
factor, started by keel-boat up the Missouri. General C ark, with 
eio-hty mounted militia, set out a few days later, overland. On 
Sert 4th,i Captain Clemson informed the War Department that 
both pprties "were in on the Missouri River four miles above (what 
was even then known as Tire Prairie'^) ; the spot of ground for an 
establishment General Clark is authorized by the Government to 
select, which I doubt not will go on rapidly." ^ , , , .. 

Captain Boone \\dth an interpreter was despatched to the 
Osages' villages, about eighty miles due south, to request the 
Indians to settle near the Fort. . .- ■. -4- • 

Clark, in his remonstrance, evidently had a detmite site m 
mind for this Fort. He and Lewis on their voyage up the river, 
1804, had observed the high bluffs on the south side of the river 
(near the present town of Sibley) as a suitable^site for a fort, and 
laid the place upon their maps as "Fort Point."^ , ^^ . 

As to the progress of the building of the fort, a letter from 
George C. Sibley to his brother, Samuel, under date Fort Osage, 
Dec. 13, 1808: .... "Since I wrote to you last, we have nearly 
completed our Fort; we had it so far finished on the 13th (No- 
vember) ult. as to be perfectly defensible against the Indians, 
should they be disposed to hostilities, and on that day it was m 
due form christened Tort Osage' with the customary parade and 

"Ever since I set foot on this ground I have been busily en- 
gaged with Indians, deputations from various tribes have been 
here to see our establishment, and to give assurances of their 
friendly intentions toward the United States. I have done a great 
deal of trading with them and have now no doubt of the success 
of the establishment. So that I look with certainty for an increase 

of salary in the spring . . . . "^ . ,. . ^i u i 4-4- 4 

September 28, 1808, Governor Lewis Meriwether by letter* 
apix)inted Sibley a Justice of the Peace, expressing a wish to name 
someone "who will reside permanently at the establishment near 
Fire Prairie." Attention should be called to the fact that this is 
the first such appointment to be made in what later became Jack- 
son County. Sibley's acceptance was returned in the following 
language under date, Nov. 13, 1808: "I have to beg your accept- 
ance of my thanks for the honor you have been pleased to do me 
by appointing me Justice of the Peace. I will accept of this ap- 
pointment for the present seeing that it is your wish, and will 
attend to the duties thereof when duly qualified (which I know 
not how to effect) and whenever they do not interfere with my 
other public avocations."^ 

"The location of the fort and trading-station," Sibley in a 
report'' stated, "was a gratuitous act on the part of the Govern- 
ment; before the fort was completed it assumed a very different 
character." Here in the fall of 1808 the Great and Little Osages 

iFrom War Department files. 

2So named because several Indians lost their lives in a prairie fire in the 
locality. J. Long's Travels. (London, 1S23) p. 250. 

SThu-aites' Early Western Travels Vol. V. p. 60. (Note.) 

^Letter in archives ofi the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis. 

sibid. 

6Early Western Travels. (Thwaites), Vol. XVI, p. 273. 

—59— 



had gathered, drawn thither by the partial compliance of the 
Government with their entreaties (a fort "near their towns" would 
not have been on the site selected) and the representation that the 
Missouri River site was superior to their homes in the southwest. 

Nov. 8th, Peter (Pierre) Chouteau, General Agent for the 
Indians, arrived at the fort. He assembled the Great and Little 
Osage chiefs in Council on the 10th and stated to them the sub- 
stance of a treaty, which he said Governor (Meriwether) Lewis 
had authorized him to execute with them. He closed his state- 
ment by saying,^ according to the Factor, George C. Sibley, "in 
very nearly the following words:" 

"You have heard this treaty explained to you ; those who 
come forward and sign it, shall be considered the friends of the 
United States, and treated accordingly; those who refuse to come 
forward and sign it, shall be considered the enemies of the United 
States, and treated accordingly. 

"The Osages replied in substance :'- 'That if their Great Ameri- 
can Father wanted a part of their land, he must have it ; that he 
was rich and powerful, they were poor and pitiful. What could 
they do ? He had demanded their land and had thought proper to 
offer them something in return for it. They had no choice ; they 
must either sign the treaty, or be declared enemies by the United 
States.' 

"The treaty was accordingly signed the same day; and so 
much were the Indians awed by the threat of Mr. Chouteau, that 
a very unusual number of them touched the pen; many of whom 
knew no more the purport of the act, than if they had been a 
hundred miles off. And, I here assert it to be a fact, that to this 
day (1819) the treaty is not fairly understood by a single Osage." 

"Thus the trading house (and Fort), which had been estab- 
lished gratuitously, in conformity with the earnest solicitations of 
the Osage Chiefs and repeated promises of the President, was 
made a part of the price of the lands acquired under that treaty 
by the United States. In April, 1810, this treaty was ratified and 
confirmed by the Senate, and was duly proclaimed by the Presi- 
dent of the United States to be a law of the land. 

"The Osages complained of the delay which took place between 
its signature (from which time it was binding on them) and the 
payment of the first and second annuities, which was not made 
till September, 1811. The trading house was kept up and well 
supplied early in June, 1813, at which time the establishment was, 
by order, broken up, and has been discontinued since then, con- 
trary to the expostulations and entirely against the consent of the 
Osages. w^ho considered the trading house as the only benefit they 
had acquired by the treaty."^ 

The more important provisions of this treaty, by which the 
Osage nation signed away such a rich property on such short notice, 
follow : 



lEarly Western Travels, Vol. XVI, p. 273-4, Thwaites' ed. Quoted from report 
made in War Department dtning the war of 1S12. 

2This speech has been attributed to Ca-ha-ton-ga, chief of the Great Osages. 

SSibley repeated thi.s from his report to Maj. S. H. Long- during- liis stay at the 
Fort, August, 1819. 

—60— 



Article One, in the nature of a preamble, required them to 
abandon their historic toMms on the Osage River, 'The United 
States being anxious to promote peace, friendship, and intercourse 
with the Osage tribes, to afford them every assistance in their 
power, and to protect them from the insults and injuries of other 
Indians, situated near the settlements of the white people, have 
thought proper to build a fort on the right bank of the Missouri, 
a lew miles above the Fire Prairie, and do agree to garrison the 
same with as many regular troops as the President of the United 
States may, from time to time, deem necessary for the protection 
of all the Great and Little Osage nations, who reside at this place, 
and who do strictly conform to and pursue the counsels, or ad- 
monitions, of the President of the United States, through his 
subordinate officers. 

Secondly. "The United States being also anxious that the 
Great and Little Osage, resident aforesaid, should be regularly 
supplied with every species of merchandise, which their comfort 
may hereafter require, do engage to establish at this place, and 
permanently to cause at all seasons of the year, a well-assorted 
stock of goods, for the purpose of bartering with them on moderate 
terms for their peltries and furs. 

In Article Third: "The United States agrees to furnish at 
the fort for their use, a blacksmith, and tools to mend their arms 
and utensils; to build for them, a horse-mill or water-mill, to fur- 
nish ploughs, and to build a block-house for the head-chief of the 
Great and Little Osage nations, such houses to be near the fort." 

In Article Four the government agreed to pay all indebted- 
ness charged against the tribes by the whites through thievery, 
upon legal proof of the offense, to the total amount of five thou- 
sand dollars to date (ISO'S). 

Article Five promises to deliver at Fire Prairie, or St. Louis, 
yearly, to the Great Osage nation, merchandise to the amount of 
one thousand dollars, annually; and to the Little Osage nation, 
merchandise to the value of five hundred dollars ; "reckoning the 
value of said merchandise at the first cost thereof, in the city, or 
place in the United States where the same shall have been pro- 
cured. In addition, the United States have at, and before, the 
signature of these articles paid to the Great Osage nation the sum 
of eight hundred dollars and to the Little Osage nation the sum 
of four hundred dollars." 

Article Six requires the second concession from the Osage, and 
reads : "In consideration of the advantages, which we derive from 
the stipulations contained in the foregoing articles, we, the chiefs 
and warriors of the Great and Little Osage, for ourselves and our 
nations, respectively" . . . 'ceded and relinquished forever' all 
lands which He east of a line beginning at Ft. Clark on the Mis- 
souri, five miles above Fire Prairie running due south to the 
Arkansas, down the Arkansas to the Mississippi and all lands sit- 
uated northwardly of the Missouri River," Also in the same 
Article the tribes ceded and relinquished forever to the Govern- 
ment a tract of land two leagues square to embrace Ft. Clark. ^ 

iFlve days later the Fort was named Osage. There were two Fort Clarks; one 
among the Mandans and the other, Clark's Fort, in Lincoln County, Mo. 

—61— 



A provision allowing the Osage tribes to hunt over their 
ancient territory, with certain reservations, applied to those In- 
dians who had put themselves "under the protection of Fort Clark 
and who observe the stipulations of this treaty." These were the 
more important terms of the agreement. 

The signers of the treaty were : 

P. Chouteau (Agent). 
E. B. Clemson, Capt. 1st Reg. Inf. 
L. Lorimer, Lt. 1st Reg. Inf. 
Reazen Lewis, Sub-agent^ Indian Affairs. 
Papuisea, Grand Chief of the Big Osage. 

Nichu Malli, Grand Chief of the Little Osage, followed by the "marks" 
of ninety-nine little chiefs and warriors of both tribes. The same treaty was 
.signed by the Arkansas Band in St. Louis, August 31, 1809. General Clark, 
"The Indian's Friend," signed for the Government and Clermont- for his tribe, 
his tribe. 

With all the dissatisfaction that might have arisen through 
the precipitation of the treaty upon them, the strong pressure used 
in its furtherance, and the slackness of the Government in carry- 
ing out its own pledges, there is but little account of resentful, or 
embittered action upon the part of the Osage nation; this was 
partly due, no doubt, to their friendship for the Chouteaus, with 
whom they had maintained close trade relations for many years; 
and their strong confidence in General William Clark, whom they 
also called "Red Head." 

In compliance with the first Article of the treaty, a number 
of members from both the Great and Little Osage tribes gathered 
about the fort. At one time, a statement says, there were in camp 
eighteen hundred souls near the fort. Henry M. Brackenridge 
says fifteen hundred warriors from all three tribes were gathered 
there in the spring of 1811.^ Of the three divisions, the Arkansas 
were the more attached to the Americans. 

April 28, 1810, Mr. Sibley was appointed Indian resident 
agent at the Fort, with a salary of $300 per annum. In his letter 
of acceptance, addressed to General Clark, one gains an insight 
into the real quality of the man, and his admirable fitness for any 
position connected with the tribes: 

"My experience fairly justifies the opinion I had long ago 
taken up, and fully confirms me in it, that the factors at the dis- 
tant outposts in the Indian country ought to be authorized to 
transact, not only the usual business of Trade, but also to exercise 
the authority & to perform the usually given to and required from 
Sub. Indn. Agents — by adding to the Factor's instructions those 
given to the Sub. Indn. Agents, much, very much trouble and con- 
fusion would be prevented, and the Factors would have it in their 
power to render infinitely better service to the Public, and better 
to promote the humane and benevolent objects of the Government 
in their Trading-Houses. 

"A trader is unquestionably the only sure instrument in the 
hands of the Govt, in times of Peace to govern distant Indian 
Tribes, as it is in fact at all times the great Lever by which to 

iThis should be "Reuben" Lewis, a brother of Meriwether Lewis. 

2The "^Varwick" of the Osag-e nation, Cliouteau. liad made Clermont a chief. 
The hereditary chief of the Great Osag-es, his place had been usurped by Ca-ha- 
tong-ha. while he (Clermont) was a child. When a chance came to secede from 
the tribe, he seized it. Zebulon Pike, Vol. I, p. 368. 

SEarly Western Travels, Vol. V, p. 60. 

—62— 



move to alter and direct their Policy and conduct toward us, (.) 
Trade ought clearly to be managed by responsible agents (I speak 
here of Public Trade) having authority independent of any other 
person at their respective Posts, to transact all Public business 
with the Indians, agreeably to written instructions from the Govt, 
or its proper Agents and pemiit me to add, that in my opinion the 
Good of the Indian service does absolutely require that there 
should be but one Person at each of our Trading Establishments 
or (Military Posts) in the Indian Country authorized, or even 
pe7'mittecl to speak to Indians on Public business, and that person 
made responsilole for his words and acts. You are well enough 
acquainted with Indian concerns to see at once the irresistible 
truth of the above observation. 

''It is in the spirit of this, my decided opinion, founded in 
the careful and minute observations of near two years in the 
Indian country, that alone would induce me to accept the humble 
office which you say The Secy, of War is willing for me to exer- 
cise at Fort Osage. 

"Viewing this matter in the light that truth and candor place 
it before me, I conceive that the Govt, has a right to require of 
me to exercise the duties of Sub. Indn Agent in addition to my 
duties as Factor under the present arrangement, seeing that the 
two offices are in their very nature inseparable, therefore I should 
decline to accept of an additional compensation of $300 per annum, 
unless indeed the Government would permit and authorize me to 
dispose of that sum in suitable Indian presents to be given at my 
discretion in the name and for the use of the Government in the 
presence always of respectable witnesses." 

The spring of 1811, saw several distinguished visitors at the 
Fort. On April 8th, John Bradbury and Thomas Nuttall, English 
naturalists, arrived traveling in company with Wilson P. Hunt^ on 
one of his fur-trading expeditions up the Missouri. Bradbury's 
description reads:- "About ten o'clock we came in sight of the 
Fort, about six miles distant. W^e had not been long in sight be- 
fore we saw a flag hoisted, and at noon arrived, when we were 
saluted by a volley as we passed on to the landing place, where we 
met Mr. (Ramsey) Crooks, who had come down from the winter- 
ing place at the mouth of the Naduet,"^ to meet us there. There 
were also collected at the landing place, about two hundred men, 
women and children of the Petit Osage nation, whose village was 
then about three hundred yards from the Fort. We passed 
through them to pay our respects to Lt. Brownson,^ who then com- 
manded in the absence of Captain Clemson." 

He found the Osage village to consist of "about one hundred 
lodges of an oblong form, the frame of timber, and the covering 
mats made of leaves of the flag, typha palustris." In the evening, 
the Adsitors witnessed a war feast in the village, to celebrate the 
return of an Osage party from a forage against the loways, in 
which they had taken seven scalps. These were paraded through 
the village on poles, followed by the warriors decked out in all 

IW. p. Hunt was head of the American Fur Co., called an "Astorian" enterprise. 
2Early "Western Travels (Thwaites'), Vol. V, pp. 59-60. 

"Nodaway River; a party of the Fur Company had spent the winter there, 
awaiting Hunt. 

■ijohn Brownson ; won a captaincy in the War of 1812. 

—63— 



their savage ornaments, and hideously painted as if for battle. 
On April 10th, the party resumed its journey upstream, under 
the usual April showers and on the bosom of a familiar "June 
rise." 

Two weeks later, April 25th, Manuel Lisa's party drew into 
the landing dock. Lisa was at the head of the Missouri Fur Com- 
pany and was racing madly (as madly as a keel boat would peiTnit) 
up the river in an effort to overtake his business rival, Wilson P. 
Hunt.^ Traveling with Lisa was another noted naturalist, Henry 
M. Brackenridge." The latter gives an interesting description of 
the establishment: 

"The Fort is handsomely situated about one hundred feet 
above the level of the river which makes an elbow at this place 
giving an extensive view up and down the river. Its form is tri- 
angular, its size is small, not calculated for more than a company 
of men. A group of buildings is formed by the factory, suttler's 

house, etc The place is called Fire Prairie. It is something 

better than three hundred miles from the mouth of the river. The 
lodges of the Little Osage, sixty in number, are within gunshot of 
the Fort; but they are about to remove to a prairie three miles 
off. . . . The Missouri is now what the Ohio was once, the Para- 
dise of hunters . . . while George Sibley and Manuel Lisa trans- 
acted business I went to visit the Osage chief and to give him a 
pipe from General Clark." This was Te-to-ba-si, nicknamed "Sans 
Oreille," because his ears were closed to wise counsel. Pike says 
he was the chief warrior of the Great Osages (1806). Bracken- 
ridge said of him: "No demagogue, no Catiline, ever used more 
art and finesse, or displayed more policy than this cunning sav- 
age." He was, in the opinion of his visitor, intriguing against the 
hereditary chief, "Young White Hairs." 

June 3, 1812, John Luttig,-' an employee of the Missouri Fur 
Company, visited the Fort. He quaintly records: ". . . We were 
invited to Captain Climson who treated us handsomely, discharged 
our freight for this place, arranged our Cargoes, had a present 
made of Ice, which regaled us exceedingly." Evidently the Fort 
was not wholly without its luxuries. 

The War of 1812 came on. British influence was soon felt in 
the increasing turbulence of the Indians north of the Missouri. 
Raids became more frequent and visits of the tribes from the south 
were made with hazard. The situation is best set forth by the 
following letter signed by the military officers at the Fort.* 

Fort Osage near Fire Prarie 
on the Mifsouri July 16th 1812. 
To the Honble Wm Eustis Esq 
Secretary of War 
Sir 

You are doubtless acquainted with the facts, of this Post not being es- 
tablished at the place pointed out by the orders of the department over 
which you preside. Believing as we do, that the Laudable and benevolent 
views of Government are not answered in its establishment here, and from 



iHunt was out-stripped 1,100 miles up the river on June 2nd, at the "Great Bend" 
of the Missouri, South Dakota. The time by keel-boat was never beaten, according to 
Irving, Brackenridge, etc. 

2Early Western Travels (Thwaites'), Vol. VI, pp. 60-1, 

^Journal of John I^uttig; 33. Stella M. Drumm, ed. 

4From file of War Department. 

—64— 



the knowledge we possess of the country, beg leave to submit the following 
statement — 

Firstly. That the original intention of the establishment was meant as a 
trading Post for the Osage Indians we are well afsured from the tenor of the 
Orders given to Col. Hunt, the Commdg Officer of this district in 1808, di- 
recting the establishment as far up the Osage River as navigable all seasons 
of the year. Col. Hunt at that time being in a very low state of health, so 
much so as to disqualify him from attending to the details of his Command, 
gave up the disposition of the establishment to the late Gov. Lewis & Gen. 
Clark, who finally decided that it should be made at this place, at least one 
hundred & fifty miles higher up than the head of navigation on the Osage 
River, but as a set off to this place having a preference to the Osage River, 
the Osages were to be removed and they were actually prevailed on and did 
remove and build their towns at this place in the Autumn of the year 1808 
shortly after the arrival of the Troops. The summer of the year 1809 they 
made corn in the vicinity of the Fort, but at that time it was visible in their 
every movement that they began to grow tired of their new residence, a great 
number of them returned to their old Towns the fall & winter of 1809-10, 
and the spring following those of the big Osage that had not previously gone 
back to their old Towtis went off in a body accompanied by many lodges of 
the little Osage, the balance of the latter nation, not more than one half of 
their Towns made corn in this neighborhood the summer of the year 1810. 
Thus both nations were divided and distracted between this and their old 
Towns and were completely cut into parties, those that still remained here 
believed they were rendering Genl Clark great act of kindnefs, considering 
themselves only his favored children, and those that had returned to their old 
Towns strenuously sounding Choteaus' praise, acknowledging him as their 
father and standing up as his partisans. Their enemies, the loways. Socks 
(Sacs), Winebagoes and other Northern tribes discovering the divisions 
amongst them commenced a predatory war on that part of them particularly 
that frequented this place, and since that time here has scarcely been an in- 
stance of their coming in to trade or otherwise but they have been as sure to 
be attacked by the Indians as above. Since the spring of the year 1811 none 
have resided near this place, the last time any of them were here was in 
April of the present year w^hen a large party of the big Osage & of the 
Chenice or Arkansas Osage band came in, the former to trade, the latter to 
receive their annuities, on their return (to their Towns) they were attacked 
a few miles from the Fort by their enemies as above, the result of which was 
the defeat of the Osages, the slaughter of many of their people and the lofs 
of a great part of their goods & horses. The survivers of this horrid carnage 
were drove back to the Fort and were truly objects of pity; they would not 
start again untill- a guard from the Garrison accompanied them twelve or fif- 
teen miles out. Thus we can with truth affirm that the Osages, for whom 
the establishment was originally intended, dare not visit it, nor to the best of 
our belief, will not, of course the object of the establishment is destroyed. 
Indians, who we believe to be of those Northern tribes above mentioned, are 
continually hovering around the neighborhood of the Fort, some indeed have 
been seen on the other side of the river directly opposite the Port, and some 
on this side within three days, and as they have attempted no act of hostility 
to us, we must believe they are looking out for the Osages probably expect- 
ing some of them in. In short their every act for eighteen months past has 
been manifestly that of deterring the Osages from participating in any ad- 
vantage, either trading or hunting, in this quarter of the country. Traders 
are now established at the Grand Osage Villages on the river of the same 
name, and the inducement to their coming here to trade is trifling indeed 
when put into competition with the risk they run of losing life and property. 

Secondly. If the objects of government be to extend their parental views 
through this establishment to the nations of Indians that reside on the 
Missouri and its waters above Viz: the Kanses (?), Ottos, Missouris, & dif- 
ferent bands of Pawnes. We are decidedly of the opinion that such have not 
nor will not be effected by it. The nearest of these nations are three hun- 
dred miles from us and the different Savage tribes are continually at war 
one with the other, which prevents them from going on trading expeditions 
far from their Villages in the direction of their enemies. Add to this, they 
all have their traders who are regular in repairing to their Towns in the 

—65— 



months of October & November of each year with the necessary supplies of 
Indian Goods, where they remain untill the May & June following, conse- 
quently it is not to be expected that the Indians will pack their peltries &c 
and carry them three and four hundred miles for the sake of getting the 
articles they may want a little cheaper, it is not in their nature so to do. 
Their double object of trading with those who go regularly to their Towns is 
to induce them to return the succeeding year, in fact they take every means 
to prevail on as many traders as they can to visit their Towns. We have 
known few instances indeed of any of those nations visiting this post for the 
purpose of trade, and we do not hesitate in affirming that a Factory here 
can have no good effect on said nations, nor meet the views of government 
by conciliating their affections, or supplying their wants. 

Thirdly. Believing as we do that the foregoing view of the relative ad- 
vantage of this situation as a trading Post with either or any of the nations 
of Indians herein referred to, are facts which neither time nor endeavours 
will alter for the better, we beg leave to state that as a Military Post afford- 
ing any advantage to the frontier of the territory it is entirely uselefs, inas- 
much as it is situated from 110 to 120 miles above the upper settlements on 
the Missouri, and that the country between it & sd settlements is frequented 
as much by Indians (the hunting ground of the Northern tribes) as any other 
part of Louisiana. Some of these nations at this time are well known to be 
hostile to us, how easy then would it be for a small party of them (say ten 
or twenty men) to cut off our supplies and consequently render us unable to 
defend ourselves. Permit us to add on this head that we can see no good 
effects emanating either to the Indians, the frontier setlers, or the govern- 
ment from a trading or military establishment here. 

Fourth and lastly. Having shown that there are no pofsible advantages 
accruing to the Indians from this situation as a place of trade, nor to the 
frontier as a Military Post, as in case of an Indian war it can be no check 
(its own defence excepted) to their hostile acts. We may add that in our 
humble opinion it is a moth on the publick purse. The station a burthen to 
both Officers & Soldiers inasmuch as the objects of its establishment are not 
answered, that instead of tranquilizing the Osage Indians, it has become a 
soui'ce of great disquiet, strife & distraction to them. Being then religiously 
of opinion that the views and ends of government will not be accomplished 
from its continuation here, beg leave with the most respectful deference to 
recommend its removal to the Mouth of the riiier LaMine about one hundred 
and fifteen miles below on the Missouri. At that spot it ought in the first 
instance to have been established because as giving protection to the frontier 
it is the only place on the Missouri that would be effectual. As a trading 
post with the Osage Indians it has every advantage over this, being nearer 
to their Towns on the Osage river and their hunting ground great part of 
the year lying between the Lamine & Osage, they could at all times come 
from their Towns to that place without running that danger they are subject 
to in coming here, and from thence to the place on the Osage river where the 
original order of the dept of War contemplated its establishment is only 
about fifty miles. To conclude we will be permitted to state without reserve 
that a wild speculative policy in the late Gov. Lewis placed the post here, 
that, that policy has not had the desired effect is obvious, and that Govern- 
ment will continue it here after being convinced of its inutility, we do not 
believe. We at least flatter ourselves that it will not be deemed a departure 
from our duty in jointly making this representation through the Command- 
ing Officer of the District. 

And We have the Honor to be with the greatest respect & esteem Your 
Obedient Servants, 

E. B. CLEMSON Captain 
1st Regt. Inft. 

JNO. BROWN SON Lt 
1st Regt. Infty. 

L. BISSELL Ens 

JONATHAN COOL 
To The Honble Wm Eustis Surgeons Mate 

Secretary of War 

Washington City 
Under cover to Col. Bissell Comdg Belle Fontaine. 

—66— 



This letter evidently brought quick results. The evacuation 
Oif the fort has always been a matter of record. It has been, 
however, the assumption that the force and trading house supplies 
were taken to St. Louis. Captain Clemson's suggestion as to the 
mouth of the La Mine, now called Lamine, a small river that 
enters the Missouri near the Cooper-Saline boundary, was 
adopted. The fort was evacuated June, 1813. On the following 
August 1st, George C. Sibley sent out his first statement dated 
from Arrow Rock, one of the earliest towns of the interior, and 
one that is still in existence. It is situated on the Missouri about 
seven miles north of the Lamine (the Missouri here flowing north 
Society, St. Louis, gives the following information: He had 
and south) . This letter now in the files of the Missouri Histericar 
"erected a fortified two-story house 20 by 30 feet, armed with a. 
swivel and blunderbusses, affording sufficient room for goods 
and for fighting."^ The only record we have of a visitor to the 
fort while it was at Arrow Rock, was that of Ezekiel Williams, a 
hero of Coyner's "Lost Trappers,"- now considered somewhat 
fictitious. This was in November, 1813. 

The fort and trading house were restored to its original site 
in 1816. But the necessity of military forts along the Missouri 
had perceptibly decreased. 

In 1819, August first, the first steamboat to ascend the Mis- 
souri nosed its way into the Fort's landing. This was the "Western 
Engineer" graphically described by Mr. W. B. Stevens elsewhere in 
this volume. Officially, the Yellowstone Expedition, it is com- 
monly known as "Long's Expedition," from Major Stephen H. 
Long, Engineer, though there was in the outfit a military man, 
Henry Atkinson, later a Brigadier-General, more noted in Western 
history in succeeeding years. 

Of the Fort, Major Long says:^ "Fort Osage stands on an 
elevated bluff, commanding a beautiful view of the river, both 
from above and below. The works are a stockade of an irregular, 
pentagonal form .... two block-houses are placed at opposite 
angles. There is also a small bastion at a third angle. Within are 
buildings for quarters, store-houses, etc. ..." 

"For a great distance below (the Fort) the establishments 
of the white settlers were confined to the immediate banks of the 
Missouri. The inhabitants of this frontier are mostly emigrants 
from Tennessee and are hospitable to strangers. Many are pos- 
sessed of considerable wealth." 

Major Long mentions a Colonel Chambers* as in charge of 
the Fort. This was the last regular military man in command 
there. 

At this time Mr. Sibley gave free expression to Major Long 
as to the terms of the Treaty and the fact that its conditions had 
not been met by the Government; and his report of the same 



iLuttigr's Journal, p. 34: Stella IM. Drumm, ed. (Mo. Hist. Society.) 
2The Mo. Valley Hist. Society owns a copy of this rare book. 
SEarly Western Travels, (Thwaite.s'), Vol. XIV, pp. 16S-9. 

4Colonel Talbot Chambers was stationed at the Cantonment of Bellefontaine, 
when it was dismantled in 1S27. • ■ 

—67— 



in 1812. As quoted to Major Long^ his objections are voiced as 
follows : 

"No complaints have been made against the Osages from the 
signature of the treaty, till after the trading-house and garrison 
were withdrawn from Fort Clark; since that time, one of our 
citizens^ had been killed by a party of the Great Osages, and the 
murderers, promptly demanded by Governor William Clark," ac- 
cording to the Treaty would have been surrendered, if Mr. 
Chouteau (Pierre) had done his duty. Among the more important 
promises of this treaty were a mill, ploughs, other industrial im- 
plements, a blacksmith to keep the implements in order .... and 
block-house to defend their towns .... A mill and one block-house 
had been built at an enormous expense, all near the Great Osage 
town." With further specifications along this line Mr. Sibley, 
now called Major Sibley, concluded his statement: 

"These facts are quoted to show that we have not dealt fairly 
with the Osage, and to infer from them, that unless immediate 
steps are taken to recover that confidence and respect those Indians 
once had in the United States, the inevitable consequence, their 
decided and active hostilities against the settlements of the Mis- 
souri and those back of the lead mines. 

"British emissaries had repeatedly attempted to engage the 
Osages in their service, previous to the evacuation of Fort Clark 
(June 1813), but without effect. The leading men have often de- 
clared to me their determination 'never to desert their American 
Father, as long as he was faithful to them.' At a time, when we 
were under serious apprehensions of an attack on Ft. Clark, the 
warriors of the Little Osage offered their services to me to defend 
the post. 

"In less than two months after those declarations and offers 
of service Fort Clark was evacuated, and the Osage establishment 
abandoned, without any notice or apology for so extraordinary 
and unnecessary an act. . . . Thus were the Osage left, (I may 
truly say) in the arms of British agents. How far those agents 
have succeeded in weaning them from the United States, I am 
unable to say ; they had full scope for their arts, and it would be 
idle to suppose they have not made some progress. 

"Of all the Missouri Indians, the Osages were the least ac- 
cessible to British influence, from their strong attachment to the 
French. They had formed a French prejudice against the 
English, which, since my acquaintance with them, has rather 
increased, than diminished. Such are the Osages, and such are 
our relations and political standing with them." 

"To put an end to the difficulties now existing between the 
United States and the Osage Tribes," Mr. Sibley urged that 
"the Osage Treaty should be immediately carried into complete 
effect and measures adopted to engage the Osage in the service 
of the United States, etc." 



lEarly Western Travels (Thwaites'), Vol. XVT, pp. 273-280. 

2This Is probably the murder and robbery reported to General Clark, April 5, 1810, 
by letter now in the Missouri Historical Society at St. Louis. He here mentions one 
Waw-kee-wath-e as leading- a small party of G-reat Osag-es. They came upon a 
hunting- party, consisting of "Michel Bone. L.( ) Soubigne, Morrice Tourtevant" 
and three .Arkansas Indians: lobbed the party and killed one man. T-wo Chiefs 
and a Warrior had signed articles of reparation at the Fort. 

—68— 



On August 10th the "Western Engineer" steamed away from 
the landing up the river. It was accompanied a day's journey on 
the way by Major and Mrs. Sibley, Captain Bissell and Lieutenant 
Charles Pentland. Several Osage chiefs, also seized the opportu- 
nity of taking their first steamboat ride. 

In 1822 an interesting visitor. Major Jacob Fowler ^ came into 
the Fort overland from the southwest. He arrived at the site of 
Kansas City, at the junction of the Missouri and Kansas on July 
4th. His experiences at the old Fort gave new light on the later 
conditions, there and are here included verbatim : 

5 July, 1822 "Sot out Early and at five miles Crossing a 
large crick- 50 yds. Wide Runs north the Bottom and Hill sides 
are well covered with timber. . . . We heare Went up a High Steep 
Hill over some High Roling ground partly Covered with Timber 
and Brush for about four miles then Six Miles over roleing Pirarie 
to a Creek for dinner there is plenty of timber Heare and the 
gide tells us He now Knos where We are and that it is ten miles 
to fort osage. We sot out in the evening and at three miles came 
to a deep crick (Little Blu)) Where the men had to Carry the 
Bagage over on their Heads and drove the Horses Threw — the 
Watter was so deep that it Was over the mens Packs. We then 
set out for the fort Wheare we arrived about ten oClock at night 
but our Company Was much Scattered Haveing Sent mr Roy and 
Battes forward from the Crick to prepair Supper at the fort fore 
the Party — on our arivel We Called for them but the (y) were 
not to be found nor Cold (could) We find any purson for some 
time but a negro man — and thonder gust comeing — He shewed 
(us) In to mr. Sibley's Porch Wheare We spent the Ballence of 
the night — 

Satterday, 6 July, 1922. Early in the morning We found mr 
Boggs- the assistant Factor Who Shewed us Into an enty (Empty) 
house in the Garison to Which we moved our Baggage Expecting 
to remain there tell Some previtions (provisions) Cold be pre- 
cured — 

The garreson at this time Was Commanded by one officer 
of the united States armey — Haveing two men under His Com- 
mand Both of them Haveing disarted a few days ago and Carryed 
off all His amenition — now It appears that mr Boggs Had not 
advised Him (evidently refers to Mr Sibley) of our Removel Into 
the garreson nor did we Sopose from the Shattered Setuation of 
Every thing We See — that any command of men or officers Was 
there But whin He looked ud In the morning and Seeing our Men 
and Baggage He Said to mr Boggs^ that He did not like to see the 
gareson taken In that kind of Stile — but on Receeving that In- 
formation from mr Boggs and the officer (Sibley) not Calling 
on us We thot (thought) Proper not to be longer In His Way and 
moved about two Hundred yds to a Spring and Camped Wheare 
after Some Diffiquality We Precured Some Previtions. 

It may Heare Be Remarked that We Ware treeted Heare 
With more Coolness than amongst any Indeeans or Spanierds We 
meet (met) With But We feel greatful to mr Boggs for His 

iThe Journal of Major Fowler is edited by Klliott Coues, who received the Mss. 
from the Fowler descendants of Kenton County, Ky. He was a man of wealth, a, sur- 
veyor by profess'ion. The title he grave his journal was: "Memoranduin of the Voige 
by land from Fort Smith to the Rocky Mountains." The party set out Sept. 6, 1821. 

2The Blue River. 
3Silbuen W. Bogrgs, Governor 1836-4n. 

—69— 



Polightness — He in the morning Precured for us a Small Beef — 
and mr Sibley Sent us Some flour and Bacon — Which With Corn 
meel and Bacon — We Purchased from one of the Citizens We Maid 
out Prete Well — for two days to Rest and Purchased two conus 
(canoes) With a Platform and Shiped all our Bag-gage With our 
Selves leaveing four men to Bring on the Enty (Empty) Horses 
to Cortsans Ca (after this Thwaites' places a (?) and We pro- 
ceeded to St Lewes — Wheare I Remained two days and then took 
passage In the Steem Boat Calhoon to lewisville and from that 
in a Small Steem Boat to Cincinati — and got Home (Covington, 
Ky) on the 27th day of July 1822 — haveing (been) gon thirteen 
months and thirteen days.^ 

August 5, 1820, Major Sibley was appointed post-master at 
the Fort, Jackson County's first post-master. 

The later years of the Fort Major Sibley was in sole charge. 
2 June, 1825, the Osages signed another treaty with the Govern- 
ment, in St. Louis, whereby, they relinquished forever their title to 
all lands they still owned within the State. This extinguished their 
title to the westeni strip of country twenty-four miles wide, ex- 
tending from Fort Osage south to the Arkansas line. With this 
new Treaty in effect, the Government was relieved of all obliga- 
tions as to maintaining a Fort and trading-station, according to 
the terms of the 1808 Treaty. While practically abandoned several 
years before, the old Fort was not officially dismantled until the 
completion of the Cantonment of Leavenworth in 1827. 

For many years the old Osages returned annually to visit 
their hereditary haunts and the graves of their ancestors. 

NETTIE THOMPSON GROVE. 



iThe expedition evidently did not start out on 6 Sept., 1821, as stated. According- 
to Major Fowler's computation, the start was made June 14, 1821. 



— 70- 



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Laid down by scale of 150 feet to an inch and with reference to the true meridian, 
The magnetic variation being considered as 11° 15' east. 



—71— 



state of Missouri, ] 

\ ss. 
County of Jackson, J 

Be it remembered on this 4th day of June, in the year of our Lord 1836, 
before me Samuel C. Owens, Clerk of the Circuit Court within and for the 
County aforesaid, came Archibald Gamble, who is personally known to me to 
be the person whose name is subscribed to the above Town Plat, and ack- 
nowledged himself to be the proprietor of the Town of which the above is a 
plat and acknowledged the same to be his act and deed for the purposes there- 
in mentioned. 

In Testimony Whereof, I have hereunto affixed the seal of said Court at 
office at Independence, this 4th day of June, 1836. 

SAMUEL C. OWENS, Clerk. (Seal) 
JOHN R. SWEARINGEN, D. C. 

The above plat to the Town of Sibley was laid out by the undersigned 
proprietor in the year 1836 and I acknowledged this plat filed in Recorder's 
Office, to be my act and at the same time I do reserve to myself and my heirs 
or assigns the right of Ferry to and from said Town within the limits thereof. 

Independence, June 4th, 1836. 

ARCHIBALD GAMBLE. 

The following letter justifies Sibley's request that the town with which 
he was so closely connected for so many years be named for him: 

Lindenwood, April 11th, 1838. 
My dear Sir. 

Yours of the 7th came to hand on Saturday evening — this is Monday 
morning — I am much gratified to learn that your trip to the "upper country" 
was attended with results so favorable ; for altho' I could entertain n^ rpa- 
sonable fear, yet considering the temper of the times, and the general obliquity 
of the Public agents, I confess that I was so urjr'easonable as to feel somewhat 
doubtful whether Right or Justice might not be denied you upon some pre- 
tense or other — Ryland I was sure would under all circumstances act cor- 
rectly in his office: and I thought it most probable that his coadjutor would 
do so also, provided you had the good fortune to approach him in exactly the 
right way — Well, the result proves either your good Inck or your discreet man- 
agement, perhaps a little of both — 

And now Sir you are in possession of the very best Town Site on the 
Missouri River — the natural point of Depot for the finest part of the State — 
and you have determined upon information rec'd & your own personal 
observation, to lay off a Town forthwith, & to offer Lots therein for Sale 
in next June or July — It is doubtless the best plan to push forward this 
thing as fast as possible — while the public appetite craves this kind of food, 
let it be supplied. I think you may count on selling off half the lots for 
good prices in June; which will, if I be not mightily mistaken, secure such an 
interest for the Town, as will promote its rapid growth; and thereby enable 
you to reap a rich harvest at your leisure from the residue — Having de- 
termined thus to proceed, you ought undoubtedly to let (illegible) Public 
know your determination immediately thro' many channels — 'By going "right 
straight ahead," promptly and resolutely, you will bear down all opposition 
effectually, and make it the interest of those inclined to oppose you, to pro- 
mote your views — By Such a course, you force all opposition out of its owti 
channels into yours — So it is clearly your policy Sir, to "push on" — "go 
ahead" — "Strike while the Iron is hot" — "jump while the Maggot bites" &.. 
And may ever Success attend you is my Sincere and earnest wish. 

But you Seem to be at a loss for a Name for your bantling, & ask me for 
my "views on the matter" — You remember that I did in my preliminary 
Memo, to you in January la&t, half stipulate, that the ToAvn Should bear a 
Name, composed of characters that are used to set forth my own cognomina- 
tion — If there be no cogent objections to this word, I would again express 
my own wish that it be adopted — The word, is short, plain, sightly & 
sonorous — not at all identified with popular or unpopular man, parties, or 
Associations — tho' it is the appellation of him who cut the first Tree, and 
as a Public Servant, dwelt nearly Twenty years on the Spot — Whenever I 

—72— 



have thought of this same Town project, within the last 12 years, my mind 
has been fully fixed and decided as to the Na7)ie. It should be either that 
of its original founder, or else that of my aboriginal friends^. It should be 
either "Sibley" or "Osage." And so it should now be, if I had the right to 
decide — In either case, whichever of the two is adopted, there Seems to me 
to be a peculiar fitness that the Public mind would readily understand and 
appreciate, and heartily acquiesce in — You may call it Weakness or Vanity 
or folly, or what you please, for 7ue, circumstanced as I am, and expect to 
remain, while on earth, (in a nutshell) to be thus Solicitous on this point. 
But it strikes my mind, that I may present this suggestion without jivstly 
incurring any Such censure — There are very many of the incidents of my 
life that afford me ample apologies, & reasons for wishing the remembrance 
of my Public Services and Associations at Ft. Osage to be stamped on the 
very spot that witnessed them for so many years. It cannot be disputed, 
that there is a moral right, a just obligation involved in this pretension. I 
will not condescend to compare it with those on which the designations of 
many of our counties are founded. Thus have I frankly replied to you on this 
point and I am sure you will rightly interpret what I have said; that it is 
not so much from weakened, vanity or folly as from a Source of Justice, 
while surely there is not the least indelicacy or impropriety in my urging, being 
personally concerned — This is not by any means a sturdy, Bentonian demand 
for a complimeyit , I care not a rush for compliments — But I should never 
have preferred this pretension to any other person than yourself. Please to 
understand me clearly — that so far as I am allowed any right in this matter, 
I prefer thr. word "Sibley" first, and next to that "Osage." They are in 
themselves both good enough words, and are both naturally associated with 
the Spot designated, its past history &c. — 

You also desire me to draft for you for you a Suitable advertisement &. — 
Not being at all accustomed to write Such things, it is probable that I shall 
perform it clumsily — but as I make it a rule to try to do whatever you ask 
of me, I shall annex, hereunto. Such a form as I believe to be consistent with 
the well known facts of the case — 

I have read with utter amazement The "Marion City"^ puff — why Sir it 
eclipses far away, Uncle Bobby's ne plus ultra. But this no Joke. Very 
large sums of money have been Secured to the projector of this new City — 
and I very much fear, that the very popular name of "Marion College" 
(popular in eastern cities) has been so associated Avith "Marion City" 
(doubtless not by design) as that a reaction may take place fatal to both 
the College and City — I have never yet been satisfied of the feasibility even 
of the College plan — If this City speculation is to be in any way hooked to 
the College, or if it should be suspected so to be, I have no hesitation in 
Saying that both must eventually fail. 

Why Sir the Western Public are incapable of comprehending such grand 
schemes; we Stand off in Wonder, and ivait the result, dare not touch, and 
cannot cooperate, and what can be expected without the Public approbation — 
all well here 

Yrs — ever truly 

G. C. SIBLEY. 
Arch' Gamble Esq. 
St. Louis 



lA town and school founded by eastern money near Pa'nyra a few years before 
this letter was written. 



LIFE AT THE FORT IN EARLY DAYS. 

Previous to the time of the estabhshment of Fort Osage on 
the Missouri River the sole inhabitants of this vast territory were 
the Indians, who were much dreaded by the early settlers. In 
order that they might be brought into some sort of subjugation 





Major Geo. C. Sibley 



Mary Easton Sibley 



and allegiance to the Colonial Government and the fertile valley of 
the Missouri made safe for settlement, Gen. William Clark, a Vir- 
ginian by birth, and a younger brother of Gen. George Rogers 
Clark, selected George C. Sibley of St. Louis, Mo., to establish and 
maintain a trading station and fort, which he named Fort Clark. 
This must not be confounded with the Fort Clark established 
among the Mandan Indians of the Dakota Territory. Col. Thomas 
Hunt had been selected to do this work, but being physically unable 
to attempt the task he was obliged to delegate it to Sibley. The 
place chosen for the fort was on the Missouri River near where the 
town of of Old Sibley now stands and thither the different tribes 
were asked to assemble ; after it had been explained to them that 
the spot selected was in every way superior to the camping grounds 
then occupied by them, they soon complied with the request and 
gradually moved from the different parts of the territory to this 
central location. Here was established what was then the most 
western military post on the continent and here in 1808 a treaty 
was entered into whereby the three tribes of the Osage Indians — 
Little Osage, Great Osage and Arkansas Osage — relinquished title 
to more than 200 miles square of land lying in Missouri and Arkan- 
sas. Although these tribes claimed vast tracts of territory in this 
vicinity their villages were situated on the Upper Osage and Ar- 
kansas Rivers. 

On September 4th the conditional treaty of conveyance was 
signed and on November 8th, 1808, Peter Choteau, under instruc- 
tions of Gov. Lewis entered into the final treaty, the compensation 



-74— 



for this vast domain being some $25,000 in merchandise taken 
from the Indian fund. These forts and storehouses were built for 
the accommodation of the traders and their customers, the Indians. 
Here rich furs and peltries were brought once a year to be ex- 
changed for necessary supplies. The name of the fort or factory 
was changed to Osage. It was also known as Fire Prairie. There 
is a legend that this name came from the fact that several Indians 
at one time lost their lives in a fire that occurred near that point. 
Fire Prairie Creek, which enters the Missouri a few miles east of 
the fort, probably received its name in the same way. 

Gov. Lewis endeavored to have these tribes settle in what is 
now Jackson County for purposes of convenience and safety. He 
was partly successful in this, but they were continually breaking 
camp and returning to their old hunting grounds and engaging in 
bloody battles with their hereditary enemies — the Sacs, lowas and 
Winnebagos. The first one of which we have record occurred in 
April, 1812, at which time the Osages suffered bitter reverses and 
many of their number were slaughtered and much of their goods 
stolen. 

Some of the men connected with this historic fort have been 
lauded in poetry and song. Capt. Bonneville has been immortalized 
by Washington Irving; he was the first of these early traders to 
employ wagons for transporting his goods across the prairies — 
hitherto pack horses and mules had been used. Captain Bonne- 
ville's expedition was privately financed. He had enlisted a party 
of 110 white men and Indians, most of whom had previously visited 
the Indian country, some of them were experienced hunters and 
trappers. They started for Fort Osage in May 1832 — the Rocky 
Mountains being their objective point. The post was evacuated in 
1813 but the village of Sibley, which had grown up around the 
fort, remained and served as a starting point for the traders and 
trappers who were westward bound. The site of the fort is now 
in the heart of the little village of Old Sibley and nothing remains 
to show that this was the spot once occupied by the historic United 
States Fort and Indian trading post, and the meeting place of sev- 
eral of the most noted of the early Indian tribes. 

Among those officiating at this fort are found the names of 
Capt. Eli B. Clemson of Pennsylvania, first lieutenant of First in- 
fantry in 1789, was cominiissioned a captain in March, 1804, and 
military commander at Fort Osage, 1808-1812, major in the war of 
1812. Fort Clemson, near Loutre Island, St. Charles County, was 
built during the war of 1812 and named in his honor. He died in 
1845. Lieut. John Brownson enlisted in the United States AiTny in 
1804, served in war of 1812 and then retired; Ensign Lewis Bissel 
was stationed at Fort Osage 1808-1812, and Jonathan Cool, sur- 
geon's mate — all of the United States Infantry. 

The following notes on the Bissell family are found: Capt. 
Lewis Bissell, Connecticut, ensign in 1808 and resigned in 1817, son 
of Maj. Russell Bissell, died 1868 at Bissell's Point, St. Louis. A 
Daniel Bissell of Vermont was first lieutenant, 1799-1800. A Dan- 
iel Bissell became a brigadier-general, born 1768, died Dec. 14, 
1833 ; he built Bellefontaine and Jefferson Barracks. Also a Rus- 
sell and a Hezekiah Bissell, who were brothers. Maj. Russell 

— 75 — 



Bissell, born in 1755, one of seven brothers who took part in War 
of Revolution. Commandant at Bellefontaine, where he died in 
1807 and was buried. 

Gen. George Rogers Clark was prominently connected with 
the history of this quarter. He it was who had earlier been com- 
missioned to conduct an expedition of Virginia Militia against the 
British at Kaskaskia and Vincennes, which resulted favorably for 
the Colonial settlers and gained for them a period of peace and 
comparative safety. These expeditions sent out by order of Gov. 
Patrick Henry of Virginia resulted in annexing to that colony vast 
sections of western territory. For further extending their trade 
enterprises President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 selected Capt. 
William Clark, a younger brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark, 
and Merriwether Lewis to take charge of an expedition to the 
great unknown Northwestern country. The story of their jour- 
neyings and marvelous discoveries is too well known to need repe- 
tition here. Merriwether Lewis, mentioned above, was made pri- 
vate secretary to President Jefferson, was fifth in descent from 
Gen. Robert Lewis of Bracan Wales, who came to America in 1635 ; 
his son, John, was next in line; then came Col. Robert Lewis of 
"Beloit"; his son, Capt. William Lewis, married Lucy Merriwether; 
they were the parents of Merriwether Lewis, who was born 
August 18, 1774, and died October 11, 1809. 

The name of Clark is a household word from the Missouri to 
the Western Seacoast. His appointment as governor of the Louis- 
iana Territory in 1812 was a fortunate one for the section of the 
country now known as Missouri. He has left his imprint on the 
annals of those times and much of the advancement that came to 
this region until it was admitted into the Union as a State in 1821 
may be attributed to the rule of this dauntless pioneer and ex- 
plorer. 

The country in the vicinity of Fort Osage was beautiful be- 
yond description. A peculiar blue haze in the atmosphere gave 
rise no doubt to the sobriquet "The Blue Country," given to this 
section of the Missouri River Valley long before the time of its 
settlement by the white man. The name has still clung to many 
of the smaller streams. Big Blue and Little Blue. Then we have 
Blue Springs, Blue Township, Blue Ridge Highway, testifying to 
the poetic nature of the Redman and his powers of expressing the 
same. 

The valleys and slopes were covered with a w^onderful growth 
of prairie grass and the hills were adorned with elm, hickory, Cot- 
tonwood, ash and mulberry trees ; before the hand of man defaced 
its beauty it appeared a veritable Paradise where almost every 
plant, shrub and tree known to a temperate climate were to be 
found; also nut trees and berry vines were to be found in abund- 
ance. To the heart of this beautiful country came Maj. George 
Champlin Sibley on one of his many excursions of discovery. He 
found the spot that later was to be chosen for the famous trading 
post and fortification known as Fort Osage, situated 300 miles up 
the Missouri River from its mouth ; Sibley traveled hundreds of 
miles in various directions, visited the camps of many different 
tribes of Indians, among them the Pawnees; discovered some 
famous salt springs heretofore unvisited by any save the Indian 

—76— 



tribes. He found the land well watered; oak, elm, hickory, black 
walnut and cottonwood trees were plentiful ; deer, elk and some 
antelope were found ; also quarries of plaster of paris in the 
vicinity of Bluewater Creek. He visited the Konsee (Kansas) 
village, some 65 miles north of the fort. The chief of the tribe, 
with some one hundred of his warriors, came out on horseback to 
greet him. The fording of the river caused some damage to their 
gaudy attire. Major Sibley's party consisted of fifteen besides 
himself and his servant and two intei^preters ; there were eleven 
Osage Indians, one of these being his faithful friend, Chief Sans 
Oreille, to whose advice and protection much of the success of his 
undertakings were attributable. The chief of the Konsees con- 
ducted the visitors to his own house, which was adorned v/ith 
handsome flags; the Stars and Stripes were displayed in different 
parts of the village, which was situated on the Kansas River, about 
100 miles by the river's course above its junction with the Mis- 
souri, The town contained 128 houses or lodges constructed of 
stout poles and saplings covered with skins and bark. An opening 
was left in the roof for the escape of the smoke from the fire; 
sometimes as many as one hundred persons occupied one lodge — - 
each family had its own fireplace. A garden plot furnished a sup- 
ply of beans, corn, watermelons, muskmelons and pumpkins. Their 
horses and mules depended on the grazing facilities of the sur- 
rounding prairies. The Indians were connoisseurs in the matter of 
choosing their mounts, many of their horses were strong of limb 
and fleet of foot and trained to great endurance, horse racing be- 
ing one of their favorite pastimes. 

The selection of Sibley, when only 26 years old, for so respon- 
sible a position might have been unfortunate ; on the contrary, his 
high qualities of heart and mind well fitted him for dealing with 
alien people on this extreme Western frontier. He was born in 
Massachusetts in 1782, a son of Dr. John Sibley, who served as 
surgeon in the Revolutionary War. George Sibley accompanied the 
troops when they went out in 1807 to establish Fort Osage. Later 
he married Mary, daughter of Honorable Rufus Easton, who had 
been sent to St. Louis in 1803 to investigate the Burr-Wilkinson 
conspiracy. He was the most distinguished of that town's original 
American representatives, served as its first postmaster, was an 
attorney general; served as territorial judge under President Jef- 
ferson, and represented the Territory of Missouri in Congress. He 
had seven daughters and two sons. The town of Alton, 111., was 
named for the eldest son, the other being Gen. Langdon Easton. 
His daughter Louise became the wife of Judge Archibald Gamble, 
a brother of Hamilton Rowan Gamble — the war governor of Mis- 
souri. The Easton home at St. Charles, which was the capitol of 
the State from 1820 to 1826, was a commodious one for the time. 
Many noted travelers were entertained beneath its hospitable roof. 

Sibley was commissioned by John Quincy Adams March 3, 1825, 
with Benjamin Reeves of Howard County and Thomas Mather of 
Illinois, to mark out a road from the Western frontier of Missouri 
to Mexico. This is known as the Santa Pe Trail, Thomas H. Ben- 
ton having secured an appropriation of $10,000 for this purpose 
from the Eighteenth Congress (1824-5). On the 5th of August, 

—77— 




pq 



W 



-78- 



1820, he (Sibley) was appointed postmaster at For!: Osage by Gen. 
Return J. Meigs, Jr. This was the first such appointment in what 
was then Cooper County. In addition to his duties as factor, Sibley 
was appointed Indian agent for the Six Mile District by Gen. 
William Clark in 1810. 

Mary Easton was born in Baltimore in 1800 and was married 
to George C. Sibley in 1815, while the fort was at Arrow Rock, 
a town still in existence on the Saline County border of the Mis- 
souri. Their wedding journey from St. Charles to the fort took 
about a month, their conveyance being a rude keel boat. It also 
carried their furniture, one piece being a piano, the first one ever 
seen west of the Missouri River. They called their house near the 
fort "Fountain Cottage." Here many people of note on their way 
to the still more distant West were welcomed for a brief stay, 
among them being Henry Brackenridge, Audubon, John Brad- 
bury, Prince Maximilian and many others of more or less distinc- 
tion. 

"Maximilian, a Prussian naturalist. Prince of Neuwied, arrived 
in Boston on his second exploration tour of the New World the 4th 
of July, 1832. He w'as accompanied by Charles Bodmer, a distin- 
guished Swiss artist, whose drawings illustrate his travels. He^ 
left St. Louis April 10, 1833, having received permission to travel 
by way of one of the American Fur Trading Company's boats, the 
-'Yellowstone,' that was starting up for the head waters of the Mis- 
souri in the interests of that company. There were one hundred 
persons in the company. At St. Charles the party was joined by 
Maj. John Dougherty (well known today in this community), who 
in his time served as Indian agent to the Pawnees, Otoes and 
lowas. On the 18th of April the boat arrived at Fort Osage. Of 
this historic point Maximilian says: 'The ridge on which it was 
situated is free from wood and cultivated and the last posts and 
beams were taken away by the people of the neighborhood.' (He 
also mentions 'Webb's Warehouse' as established near Fire Prai- 
rie.) This part of the country was the chief abode of the Osages. 
The whole tract from the Osage River, thro' which we have passed 
was formerly theirs, but they sold a part of it to the United States 
and they are now entirely forced back into the prairies of Arkan- 
sas." 

His collection of Mammalia is now in the American Museum 
of Natural History, New York City. 

Mary Sibley possessed an unusually strong character and her 
sterling worth and high ideals of life carried her through many 
trying ordeals. Through her great desire to be of use to hunipnity 
the Lindenwood School was established at St. Charles in 1827 by 
Major and Mrs. Sibley, after the fort was discontinued and their 
services there no longer needed. Here they spent the last years of 
their lives. Major Sibley dying near St. Charles, January 31, 1863. 

When George C. Sibley came to Fort Osage with Capt. Eli B. 
Clemson he brought a stock of goods with him with which to sup- 



lEarly Western Travels; Thwaite's ed., Vol. 22. 

2"The 'Yellowstone' was burnt 1 June, 1835, near Bismarck, N. Dakota, (at 
this time,) a large cargo of furs was lost, a whole year's accumulation as well 
as the large collections of Maximilian.'' 

—79— 



ply the needs of the Indians. He was a man of pleasing personality 
and industrious habits. He accumulated considerable property 
within the limits of what is now Jackson County. 

When the State Legislature met in January, 1827, three Jack- 
son County judges were named — Abraham McClelland, Richard 
Frisbie and Henry Burns. The first county meeting, in 1827, 
authorized the establishment of Fort Osage Township. The town 
of Sibley was founded in 1836. 

The new town flourished from the first until in 1855 it con- 
tained over one thousand inhabitants, then it began to decline. 
Today its appearance has quite materially changed. The old fort 
has entirely disappeared. Only a few scattering houses and a large 
cornfield mark the site of the old town and fort. The gradual 
change in the current of the river has carried the shore line several 
hundred feet eastward toward New Sibley, which is one of the sta- 
tions on the Santa Fe Railroad. The Daughters of the Revolution 
have placed a Santa Fe Trail marker just outside the old cemetery, 
overlooking the bluff. In the eastern portion of the old burying 
ground are seen the graves of nearly one hundred soldiers, but 
there is nothing to show their names or the exact location of their 
graves.^ 

Social life in the early days centered around the Brick Union 
Church, which stood just southeast of the fort. Here people for 
miles around came on the Sabbath to listen to the sermon of course, 
and to discuss the news of the day with their friends and neigh- 
bors. Here invitations were circulated to weddings, barn rais^'ngs, 
quilting bees, missionary meetings and family gatherings of all 
kinds. The women exchanged cooking recipes and embroidery and 
crochet designs, and talked over other household topics, while the 
men on the other side of the church discussed the affairs of the 
Nation and predicted the probable results of the next election. 
These all day basket meetings were well attended and strengthened 
the bonds of a lifelong friendship between these early pioneers, the 
like of which is seldom experienced in these later and so-called 
more prosperous days. 

The business section of the town was located on the low 
ground near the river, where shipping was the chief activity. Sev- 
eral large warehouses were built for the storing of tobacco, hemp, 
bacon and grain intended for trade with the river towns. Among 
the names of the first property owners we find those of Michael 
S. Corre, Thomas G. Settle, Albert Cushing, Josiah Spaulding and 
George Coltier. Doctor Murray is mentioned as having once lived 
at the fort, also Isaac Rawlins. There is to be found in the 
archives of the War Department a letter from Rawlins to George 
C. Sibley, written from Maryland about 1815, in which he speaks 
of their experiences at Fort Osage. Here Captain Garrison and 
Mr. William Hughes operated a general store. Zenas Leonard and 
Joseph Harrelson also owned one of the larger stores, one of their 
clerks being John F. Richards, who lived with Zenas Leonard. He 

iThe following- was copied from headstones In the old cemetery: "Isabel B. 
Harrelson. wife of Zenas Leonard, d. Aug. 11. 1851." "Martha Harrelson Leonard, 
b. 1839 — d. 1857." "Jeremiah Harrelson. d. Oct. 7, 1839 (grandfather of W. C. H.)." 
Zachariah Womas. d. Jan. 1, 1851." "Geo. H. Locke, d. March 10, 1848." "(Samuel 
Kinney, d. May 13, 1855." 

—80— 



married his employer's daughter, Martha Harrelson. Later they 
moved to Leavenworth, Kansas, where she died. Colonel Richards 
is now president of a large wholesale concern in Kansas City. He 
is not at all backward about referring to his early experiences in 
Sibley. His pay check for the first year's services with Leonard 
and Harrelson amounted to only a little over three hundred dollars. 
Abraham McClelland's farm was about a mile from the fort. He 
served as a judge of the first Court of Jackson County, also as 
State Treasurer, 1838-1843. His sister Annise married Rev. Sam- 
uel Carrack. Their daughter, Barbara, married Joseph A. Harrel- 
son and their son, William C. Harrelson, was born at Silbley, Oct. 
7, 1839. He married Sally, a daughter of Dr. William Miller. 
William C. Harrelson spent most of his life on the old farm in the 
Six Mile District near Sibley. He served in the Confederate army 
during the entire period of the Civil War and is now Brigadier- 
General of the Western Brigade of the Missouri Division of the 
Confederate Veterans. He recalls many incidents of pioneer days 
and is our authority for the items herein recorded regarding the 
old settlers of Fort Osage Township. 

Samuel W. Hudson's farm is located one mile south of Sibley. 
He served as judge of Jackson County for two years. He was an 
orderly in the company commanded by Elijah Chiles in the Civil 
War ; he was at the battle of Lone Jack ; he married Emma, daugh- 
ter of Newton Walker. 

James H. Audrain lived for some time near Fort Osage, as 
early as 1811. He married a daughter of Gov. Samuel Welles of 
Kentucky in 1806. They moved to the Six Mile District near Fort 
Osage in 1810. Here he engaged in business with his brother, 
Francois. 

William Hudspeth helped to organize the first school in Sibley. 
His son, Thomas Jefferson, settled on a farm near by, and Thomas' 
son, Thomas Benton Hudspeth — born 1849 — married Martha Scott, 
daughter of Newton Scott and granddaughter of Gen. Winfield 
Scott. They are living on the old farm place near Sibley. 

Jonathan Colcord was another early settler who came to Fort 
Osage from Virginia. His daughter, Ida, married John Spotts- 
wood Brown. Brown's three brothers — James, Charles and Gran- 
ville — lost their lives while serving in the Civil War (Confederate) . 

Archibald Gamble, the brother of Hamilton Rowan Gamble — 
war governor of Missouri — lived in Sibley for a number of years, 
where he made his home with Zenas Leonard. He served as clerk 
of the circuit court and held other offices of trust in the county. 
He died in 1866. 

The old tavern owned and operated by Charles Griffith stood 
directly west of the fort and witnessed much activity during the 
palmy days of Old Sibley, when the town contained about one 
thousand inhabitants. This was about 1855. 

Walker Ware, whose daughter, Mary Jane, married Frederick 
Choteau, and Charles McMillan and Edward Lee also lived in the 
Six Mile District. McMillan clerked in a store kept by Barney 
Appel, and Hassett kept the warehouse which stood near the ferry, 
which was in operation up to the beginning of the Civil War. The 
old boat used at that time was a crude flat bottom affair which 
now has been replaced with a modem steam ferry. Leonard and 

—81— 



Harrelson owned the ferry, but hired a colored man, Sam Carrack 
by name, to operate it. 

Harrelson's ten-year-old son, "Billy," acted as pilot by stand- 
ing in front and guiding the unruly craft with the aid of a pair of 
oars. Harrelson's daughter, Amanda, married Cole Foster, attor- 
ney for the M. K. & T. Railroad for over twenty years. Their great 
uncle, William Carrack, came to Fort Osage Township from Tennes- 
see with his brother. Rev. Samuel Carrack, who was the first presi- 
dent of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. After his death 
his wife went to Missouri. William C. Harrelson lives with his 
son, Samuel H., at 3609 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Mo. 

Doctor Tannahill owned the only drug store in the town and 
dispensed pills and powders to those who were unfortunate enough 
to be found in need of them. 

John Mason Peck wrote a life of Daniel Boone in which he says . 
that Boone spent two weeks at the fort in April, 1816, after which 
he went on to the Little Platte. He also states that Boone spent a 
V inter on Grand River trapping beaver, where he fortified himself 
with a supply of venison, turkey and bear meat. Peck visited Boone 
at the home of his son, Nathan, in December, 1818, at which time he 
had several interviews with him. Boone was endowed with the true 
spirit of the pioneer. As soon as a section of land had been cleared 
by him and made habitable he felt that he must move on to fresh 
fields of conquest and leave the acres he had pre-empted and 
cleared to later comers. 

The old log school house stood a short distance south of the 
fort and was taught for a number of years, 1847-57, by Anna Ladd 
from Wyandotte. Her sister, Artless Ladd, born in Ohio, came to 
Wyandotte, where she married Lawrence P. Browne, a partner of 
W. H. Chick in the general mercantile business. They owned 
stores in Missouri and in Mexico. 

Joel Walker, also from Wyandotte, lived near Sibley — was 
justice of the peace of Jackson County and also served as clerk of 
the circuit court. 

"David Dealy, though not the first settler in the township, 
was an older settler in the county than any of the others. He had 
settled in the Six Mile tract near Fort Osage, and as soon as he 
was permitted to do so, came west of the Little Blue, he being one 
of the first to plow the rich soil 'between the Blues' and is said to 
have sowed the first wheat in that locality. In 1834 he came to 
the farm where he died in 1878. This was four miles northwest 
of Lone Jack. He was the father of twenty-six children, all by 
the same mother." History of Jackson County, p. 339. 

Lynchburg Adams came from Virginia in 1819 and settled in 
Fort Osage Township. He had two sons: James, now living, aged 
87 years ; William, living in Indiana. Many of the descendants of 
Lynchburg Adams are living today in Kansas City, Independence 
and Buckner, Missouri. 

Frank Chiles, married in Kentucky, came to Jackson County, 
Missouri, in 1831, where his wife died — then married Miss Haller. 
He died a number of years ago, but his widow is still living. 

His son, Christopher C. Chiles, was born in 1825. He assisted 
his father in running a general supply store in Sibley. 

«9 



Frank Chiles' daughter married Judge William Wallace, son 
of Rev. Wallace of Lees Summit. 

James G. Chiles, son of Frank Chiles, married Ruth Hamilton. 
They had eight children, as follows : 

1. Samuel Chiles — was marshal of Jackson County for sev- 
eral years ; married Jennie, daughter of William Hughes. 

2. James Crow Chiles. 

3. Elijah Chiles. 

4. Henry Chiles. 

5. Susan Chiles — married Rev. Lancaster Block of Liberty, 
Mo. 

6. Ruth Chiles — married Mr. Phelps. 

7. Isabel Chiles — married Mr. Shortridge. 

8. Daughter — married Mr. Erwin of the firm of Erwin & 
Jackman, freighters over Santa Fe Trail. 

To these and hundreds of other brave men who helped hew the 
logs and erect homes in the wilderness and lay the foundations for 
schools and churches and great commercial enterprises, our Re- 
public owes a debt of gratitude which should be considered as a 
sacred trust by their descendants who number thousands and can 
be found in every state west of the Mississippi. 

Now, that Missouri has just finished her one hundredth year 
of Statehood, these retrospective remarks may be excused. Look- 
ing back over this long period of growi;h and progress, the true 
Missourian may well feel proud of the part his State has taken in 
the advancement of the entire Western coimtr ,-. She has \.aken 
the lead in conquest, commerce and civilization and left her im- 
print on the Northwest, Central West, Southwest and Coast States. 
The title "Mother of the West" is an hono ed one a. .. istly 
bestowed. 

EMMA S. WHITE 



-83— 





bo 



TO J2 



> s 



-84- 



THE REVEREND ISAAC McCOY. 

By his granddaufjhter, NELLIE McCOY HARRIS. 

Isaac McCoy was born June 13, 1784, in Fayette County, 
Pennsylvania. When he was six years old, his father moved with 
his family to Kentucky, where the boy grew to manhood, and where 
he married in 1803. Christiana Polk, daughter of Captain Charles 
Polke of Hinchellers Fort, Shelby County. 

Dr. Wyeth ' of Philadelphia, in his Memorial to "Isaac McCoy — 
Christiana McCoy" says the youth early developed a fondness for 
books, and by this with the aid of his wise mother, he attained 
distinction, mentally and morally. 

At eighteen years of age, Isaac united with the Baptist denomi- 
nation, then holding a series of meetings in the neighborhood. 
When he had barely reached hs majority, he became obsessed 
with the "impulse-call," he termed it, to preach to the Indians. In 
obedience to this call, he went in 1808 to Vincennes, Indiana, then 
in the vicinity of tribes of Indians, where he obtained a license to 
preach. 

His estate consisted of farm land in Kentucky, which deprived 
of his supervision, yielded little or no revenue, and his services 
being mainly gratuitous, he was compelled to resort to other means 
of support for his little family. 

His father had operated a spinning-wheel factory, so Isaac, 
familiar with that business, in his extremity manufactured the 
wheels, both the large and small kind. Mr. McCoy's career was a 
diversified one — happy in the companionship of his cheery, sym- 
pathetic wife and his dear children, his career all along was fraught 
with hazard, and pursued by disappointments and sorrows that 
would have broken the spirit of one less courageous. But, his 
invincible, his persistent pursuit of what he deemed his duty, and 
his faith in God, sustained him through almost overwhelming 
obstacles. 

One, who knew him intimately, wrote that Isaac McCoy pos- 
sessed all the elements of a soldier, and circumstances often called 
this into action during his residence in Kentucky during the most 
troublesome period of that State's history, where extreme vigilance 
and valor were necessary for the preservation of life and prop- 
erty, and in which he proved he knew not fear. Carrying his rifle 
on his shoulder, he led his people either in pursuit of marauding 
Indians, or to the house of worship. Even in this perilous period, 
he felt the yearning to help the people against whom he was con- 
stantly armed. 

He realized that the Indian felt a natural resentment against 
the white people for what thej^ considered aggression and usurpa- 
tion. Father Dalton- in his lectures before the Historical Society 
said "the good priests who went to the Indians in the early times, 
understood this feeling and commiserated them, and condoned 
their veno'eful spirit," adding that the Indians were in possession 
of their own domain. They are gone : the White man now is here. 

Mr. McCoy's proiect for the betterment of the Indian was 
mainly sDiritual, yet he wished to improve their temporal habits 
and environments. He interested the Baptist Board of Missions 

iWialtpr N. Wyeth. D. D.. a Baptist publisher of Philadelphia. 
2The Reverend Father William J. Dalton, pastor of the Church of the An- 
nunciation for nearly fifty years. 

—85— 



in the latter scheme, and when possible, they furnished him plows, 
and other farming implements and instructed them in their uses. 
Many looked upon this industrial move as an Utopian dream ; and 
thought that these nomads, who lived upon the bounties of Nature, 
could never be brought to adopt the habits and occupations of in- 
dustrious and civilized white people. 

The first mission established by Isaac McCoy, of which I can 
find any record, was in the vicinity of what is now, Montezuma, 
Indiana, in 1818 and among the Kickapoos, Miami and Wea Tribes. 
Seeking a wider field, he went to Fort Wayne, Ind., a year later — 
1819. On the journey to this city he, and his family, suffered 
severely from the bad weather and bad roads. 

During his missionary work there, an incident occurred which is 
of interest to me, and I trust will prove so to you. In roaming around 
this region, Mr. McCoy discovered a beautiful brook, cheery, clear 
and placid. He said he at once thought of his dear wife, in whom 
these qualities were so pronounced, and upon learning the stream 
was unnamed, he gave it the name of his wife, Christiana. Today, 
more than a century later, not only is the brook still called by the 
name, but also the Mills built upon it, a Lake, and a Club-house and 
pleasure boats there also bear the name "Christiana." 

In 1822, Isaac McCoy established Cary Mission on the present 
site of Niles, Michigan; and Mission Thomas on the site now oc- 
cupied by the city of Grand Rapids. 

The discomforts of our present food conservation (written 
1918) now sink into insignificance in comparison to what those 
Missionaries suffered. Our most meager meal would have seemed 
to them lavish luxury. A few of our meals are meatless (1918), 
wheatless, or sweetless. Theirs many times were almost eatless. 
They were reduced at one time to subsisting entirely on parched 
com. Mr. McCoy wrote in his diary of that extremity, "Blessed 
be God, we have not yet suffered for lack of food ; for parched corn 
is an excellent substitute for bread." 

The next entry in his diary, however, is not so encouraging. 
"But, now having eaten our last grain of corn, we cannot avoid some 
anxiety about our next meal." Rather putting a good face on it, 
don't you think? 

In 1832 Mr. McCoy established a mission in the Indian coun- 
try, seven miles from the junction of the Kansas and Missouri 
rivers and three miles west of the state line now between Missouri 
and Kansas. 

To this mission was brought the first printing press west of 
the Missouri River. On this press was printed a newspaper called 
the Shawanoe Sun, edited by Dr. Johnston Lykins and printed by 
Jotham Meeker; also a book on the colonization of the Indian 
tribes. This book, in the original, is in the custody of the Kansas 
City Public Library, and is marked "exceptional." 

Dr. Lykins translated into the Shawanoe language a part of 
the New Testament, which was also printed on this pioneer press. 

I find references to a mission established at Muscogee, but I 
have not found definite data as to its establishment, or continu- 
ance. 

—86— 



Mr, McCoy, with sons, Rice and Calvin,' made numerous and 
important under Goverment contract. After Isaac McCoy, under 
instructions from the Department of the Interior, had selected 
new locations for various tribes of Indians, west of Missouri, he 
was also sent to survey these reservations. In 1827, he made his 
first journey with this object in view. In 1828 he began his work, 
camping on the way, near the site, where this Library is located.- 

In 1830, Isaac McCoy was instructed by Secretary of War, 
Eaton, to survey and mark by metes and bounds, a military reser- 
vation of about eleven sections of land, including the small post 
called Cantonment Leavenworth. His sons. Rice and Calvin, and 
John Donaldson, a nephew of President Jackson, doing the sur- 
veying; Mr. McCoy supervising the work and attending to the 
financial features and reporting records. 

The contract for the survey of the Cherokee outlet, called 
the "Cherokee Strip," (when opened for settlement) was also 
awarded to Mr. McCoy — his son Calvin, again doing the active 
work. This was completed in 1837. Not only have the field notes 
of these surveys been found flawless, but, in one instance, at least, 
has decided an important law-suit. Isaac McCoy is credited, and I 
believe justly so, with having originated the colonization plan for 
the Indians, and reported his scheme to the Government. President 
Monroe in his Message to Congress, 1824, mentions this matter. 
This plan was to set aside a Territory for the Indians, where they 
could live without fear of the encroachments of the white people. 

The plan was contemplated and designed for the elevation of 
the Indian character, and to remove their resentment against what 
they considered rank injustice of the conduct of the early whites 
in their country, by assigning to them a country of their own, 
where their pride of possession would stimulate them to engage in 
peaceful pursuits, to formulate and observe laws for the better- 
ment of their own social condition, and teach them fairness in 
property rights, etc. 

The Indian husband's rule in domestic affairs was: "What 
is my Squaw's is mine, and what is mine, is my own," differing 
very little from the old-time White husband's idea. Indeed, our 
laws went them one better, or worse, for, in my early days, at the 
death of a husband, household equipment, furniture, feather-beds, 
silver ware, even the patchwork quilts, that his wife had made with 
her own hands — all were sold at a public sale. 

Thank Heaven, as the old darky said : "The world do move !" 

Mr. McCoy most distinguished himself in public service in the 
part he took in selecting a permanent home for the Indians. He 
and two others, Senator Mason, of Virginia, and another whose 
name I cannot now recall, were appointed by the President to 
tour the territory west of the Missouri River and the Arkansas 
line considering conditions, estimating water supply, soil, etc., most 
favorable for Indian happiness. In fact the needs for the territory 
for the sole use of the roving unsettled people, was first proposed 
and brought to thp attention of the President and congress by Mr. 
McCoy and several of his trips to Washington were to keep before 

iRice became Dr. Rice McCoy of this city. "Calvin" was the Col. John C. Mc- 
Coy, founder of "Westport and otherwise prominently identified with the com- 
munity, and a civil engineer by profession. 

2The Library is the Allen Branch Library, Wyandotte and Westport avenue. 

—87— 



congress his pet scheme. Before the finish of his search for a 
location of the Indian territory, the two other commissioners were 
called away by their other duties, so Mr. McCoy made the final 
report to congress, which was accepted, approved and signed by 
the President. 

The land was deeded to the Indians as theirs "as long as grass 
grows, and water runs." 

In pursuance of his worthy aims, Mr. McCoy made numerous 
trips to Washington, D. C, usually in the winter when congress 
was in session, many times riding horseback a part or the entire 
journey. His noble wife, Christiana Polk McCoy shared his zeal 
and self-abnegation and deserves to share the credit and the honor 
of the tribute of respect and praise so generally bestowed by his- 
torians upon Mr. McCoy, 

"~ Much of interest is recorded of Isaac McCoy's eventful and 
useful life, of his days and months of weary travel, through the 
trackless wilderness, weeks without sight of human dwelling; 
nights of cold and rain; lying on the cold ground, with only the 
bark of trees for covering; of his nine trips to Washington, some 
of them on horse-back ; of fearful hazards, and many accidents, of 
long periods of separation from his family : But, a detailed narra- 
tive of all his experiences would consume more time than I have 
at my disposal. 

I neglected to mention in proper place, that an act of Congress, 
May 26, 1830, made provisions for the establishment of the Indian 
Territory bounds, beginning at Red River east of Old Mexico, ex- 
tending east to Arkansas Territory, North to the southern line of 
Missouri and westwardly to Poncah Creek, and on as far as the 
country is habitable. 

On this exploration, Mr. McCoy discovered, and I believe wrote 
the first account of the singular freak of nature in Mitchell (as 
now known) County, Kansas. This is a jug shaped rock, perched 
on the level plain, as well as I can recall the description, about six- 
teen feet high and twelve feet across the top always filled with 
salt water, yet never overflowing, except when a strong wind 
blows the brink. Around the surface of this ground was a "buffalo 
lick," where the herds come to get salt, left by the evaporation of 
the overflow water. The Indians call this well, "Wa-ken-da," 
meaning God the Spirit of Life. 

As to Isaac McCoy's personal appearance and marked attributes, 
I will quote from the "Life of Spencer H. Cone," written by his 
sons, Spencer W. Cone and Edward Cone, the former still a prac- 
tising lawyer of New York City: "Isaac McCoy was one of the 
most lovable men we ever knew. Living the life of exposure, vicissi- 
tudes, and hardships, his mind and manners, instead of becoming 
rude and hard through rough usage, grew all the while the softer, 
holier, and more loving. Never familiar, carrying in his quiet 
eye an indescribable something that repelled familiarity, yet never 
repelled. Men were compelled to feel when in his company that 
they were near something good and noble. One accustomed to 
distinguish between men, or to observe with any nicety the shades 
of human character would, before they knew his occupation, have 
fancied Mr. McCoy a denizen of a court. 



"There can be no finer illustration of how much the heart 
has to do with the bearing and manners, that was shown in him, 
an evidence that a Christian gentleman is a perfect gentleman. 

"What men of the world would think foolish honesty, pre- 
vented Mr. McCoy from being a very rich man. At almost every 
cession of their lands by Indian tribes, during his work among 
them, they would insist that he should have a part of these con- 
veyed lands, and this would have met with the prompt approval 
of the Government at this time, but he steadfastly refused, or 
forbade it. 

"In physique, Mr. McCoy was tall and slender, scrupulously 
neat, and well dressed, when at all possible." 

Isaac McCoy managed to have his children educated, though 
his means were limited. Two sons, after attending the Transyl- 
vania University at Lexington, Ky., graduated at Columbia Col- 
lege, Georgetown, D. C. Another son attended a Cincinnati 
school, finishing at Transylvania. Another son was a student at 
the Missouri State University, the first year of its existence. 
His daughters were educated in Cincinnati and Lexington, Ky. 

He kept a journal through his entire eventful life. This 
diary is now in the custody of the Kansas State Historical Society 
at Topeka; also fourteen other books, which he wrote, and public 
documents. 

An historian has said that "The detail of experiences thro' 
which Mr. McCoy passed, and his discoveries make one of the 
most thrilling narratives in Western literature." And that he 
wrote, clearly, tersely and graphically. 

The career of this truly extraordinary man, terminated 
gracefully and fittingly in literary pursuits. He returned to 
Louisville where he engaged in editorial work for Baptist publi- 
cations. This was in 1842. After four years of this congenial 
work, he died June 21, 1846, and was buried in the Western 
Cemetery, Louisville, now in the heart of the city. 



—89— 



FARMS OWNED BY ISAAC McCOY. 

By NELLIE McCOY HARRIS. 

Approximately from the State line east to Belleview avenue — 
55th to 64th street — was the first farm owned by the Reverend 
Isaac McCoy. The residence stood about a block from the Meri- 
wether home.^ 

The first eighty of this tract, my grandfather bought from 
Dr. Johnston Lykins, who had entered it. This is just across the 
street from the Ward estate. After possessing it for a year or 
two, he sold it back to his son-in-law, Dr. Lykins. (He had married 
Delilah McCoy). In a portion of this tract, a great-grandson, and 
a great-great-granddaughter, now reside.^ Two acres of this tract 
were set apart as the McCoy cemetery. This hallowed spot, today, 
is the southwest comer of the grounds surrounding the J. W. 
Perry home, 1335 Santa Fe Road. Here were buried the remains 
of Mrs. Christiana Polk McCoy, wife of Isaac McCoy; her daugh- 
ters, Josephine Eleanor, Delilah, Sarah Christiana and Virginia, 
and her sons, Josephus, William and Rice. Also, less close rela- 
tives and a number of negro slaves. A plat of the interments there 
exists in the writing of the late John C. McCoy, a son, and my 
father.^ 

Of the land owned by my grandfather, I next mention the 
farm on what is now South Main street. This farm beginning 
at about 33rd street, on the south, extending north almost to the 
Union Cemetery ; and from Main on the west, to about Locust 
street on the east, originally ; later this boundary was McGee. 
Mr. James Porter, who had entered land to the east of this farm, 
asked Mr. McCoy to let him have the eighty acres on the east, which 
he did at exactly the same price he had paid for it. I think this 
was two and a half dollars an acre. 

My grandfather bought this place from Abraham Pallette, in 
1839, the land having been entered by Josephus Cockrell father 
of the late Senator, Francis M. Cockrell. Later Mr. McCoy sold 
another portion of the tract to James M. Hunter; but owned the 
rest until his death in 1842. 

The house on this farm was log, partly weatherboarded. It 
stood just back of the twin oaks in front of the Oaklawn Apart- 
ments.* Here, according to McCoy custom, whenever a piece of 
land was acquired, Isaac McCoy set out a fine orchard. A few 
trees of this orchard were still bearing in 1870. 



iThis is the present W. W. Meriwether home, of recent construction, 5730 
"Ward Parkway. 

2Spencer F. Harris and his daughter, Mildred, 1010 West 56th street. 
3This cemetery was platted by Dr. Johnston Lykins. 
^Northeast corner Main nd Thirty-third streets. 

—90— 



The farm of Mr. McCoy's, which I think was the one in mind, 
when the request for this article was made, was the home called 
"Locust Hill." This plantation extended from the present Archi- 
bald street in Westport south to about 45th street. What is now 
"Wornall road" runs through it about the center. The house on 
the plantation fronted on this road and consisted of two stories 
of two rooms each and a one story addition of one or two rooms. 
The rooms were all large. I believe this house, at least a part of 
it, was built originally of logs and then weatherboarded. The 
smokehouse of logs had a clap-board roof, as I remember it. 

On the hill side just west of Mill Creek boulevard, near Forty- 
third street was a fine spring, the water supply of the family. 
The branch from it furnished water for the stock. This brook 
followed the valley and emptied into Brush Creek near where the 
E. C. White school now stands. The stone spring house stood be- 
neath a big oak tree for about fifty years. The tree is still there. 

The house stood on an eminence above Forty-third street in a 
grove of fine forest trees and, according to another McCoy custom 
— I had almost said "failing" — Mr. McCoy planted locust trees 
about the premises. The descendants of those old pioneer trees 
are still in evidence around the locality. 

The big cornfield was across the road to the west. That field 
was the only possible excuse Mr. McCoy could have had for select- 
ing this tract for the balance of it, except about the yard, was 
rocky and hilly and covered with scrubby oak timber. 

In those old days the water supply was a vital consideration, 
so it is likely that the fine spring on the hill side, and a cave spring 
on the north part of the tract, had much to do with the selection. 
Then, my grandfather ever had a penchant for the picturesque, so 
it may be that the topography of the locality influenced him. 

The lovely forest trees, the sloping hillside, with the clear, 
cool spring, and the limpid brook winding down to the green valley, 
and along the green meadow, — even the clusters of wild crab-apple 
trees, along the stony slopes evidently influenced him in a measure. 

The garden to the south of the yard, was wonderfully pre- 
served — some roses, lilacs, gooseberries, and other shrubs, flour- 
ished still, for decades aifter they were planted there. The old 
asparagus bed, which my grandfather had made in this old garden, 
was in pretty good condition in 1870 — it may be there yet. 

Mr, McCoy was a missionary among the Indians for the best 
part of his life, and moved often, from one location to another, 
establishing missions. It was no small task to take his large family 
— he at one time had eight or ten children to carry along — but, 

—91— 



with all the harrassments, and expense of these many journeys — 
he always carried his books. He never lost an opportunity to 
obtain a good book, and we have still, in our family, valuable 
volumes of his collection, many of which today are unobtainable. 

The home, ''Locust Hill," was noted for its hospitality, and 
like all those pioneer homes, "be it ever so humble," the latchstring 
always hung out. Guests were welcomed, even in those scanty 
quarters — the big hearted host and hostess managed as some ex- 
press it, "to eat and to sleep them." An old negro servant said: 
"Dey sho will hatter sleep on the flo' and kiver wid de do' !" But 
pallets were spread when exigency required it, with the bedding 
that was always abundant in all old homes. 

Young army officers from Fort Leavenworth were frequent 
visitors of the daughters of the house. This home was the scene of 
much happiness, but many sorrows as well, several grown daugh- 
ters dying there. One daughter, Eleanor, was married in the house 
and died there a year later. o 

Reverend Mr. McCoy, was called to Louisville, Kentucky, in 
1842 to edit a paper and sold the house (I believe) to Dr. James 
Stone a pioneer Westport physician. 

An abstract man has said that the name, McCoy, appears on 
more abstracts than that of any other family. 



-92- 



ISAAC McCOY'S SUCCESSOR. 

Some years ago, a great-nephew of Isaac McCoy living in 
Dallas, Texas, (John C. McCoy by name) heard there was a 
preacher, a Baptist Indian missionary named Isaac McCoy, living 
in Strind, Oklahoma. Knowing there was no relative of the 
name, living, and carrying on the work of an Indian missionary, 
and thinking it a strange coincidence that, after more than seventy- 
five years there should be some one of the same name, doing the 
same work, in the same place, among the same tribes, he wrote 
to this man in Oklahoma, and asked him, who he was. And, asked 
him to tell him something about himself and his work. And, this 
was his reply. 

"I am a full blooded Ottawa Indian, seventy-six years old, and 
have been preaching the gospel to the Indians scattered through the 
Indian Territory, since I was a young man. The name Isaac McCoy 
was given me by a man of that name, who was the first Missionary 
to come to the territory. In his work, as a missionary, he came 
to give consolation and minister to my mother, my father having 
just died. 

"I was then a boy about six years old, playing about the door 
of the wigwam with my little sister. The missionary placed his 
hand on my head, said a prayer, and told me he wanted me, when I 
grew up, to be a preacher and tell the Indians about Jesus Christ, 
and then he said to my mother : "Give him the name, Isaac Mc- 
Coy;" and my sister he called "Christiana McCoy." 

"I was just a little Indian boy and so young, I did not under- 
stand the meaning of it, but I never forgot his words, and the 
solemn act of dedicating me to the Lord, and I determined when 
I was old enough, that I would do as he had said; and so I have 
been preaching and travelling through the Indian Territoiy, as a 
missionary to the Indians, since I was a young man. My sister. 
Christiana McCoy, died when she was about thirty-four years of 
age." 

And so Reverend Isaac McCoy, Baptist missionary was until 
a few years ago, living and actively engaged in the same work 
of savinsr the souls of the Indians, as his predecessor of the same 
name. If the first Isaac McCoy could see the work he began so 
long ago still going on, in his own name, and could know that 
from that first seed sown by him there are now more than sixty 
thousand Christian Indians, he would feel that his work had not 
been in vain. 

MATTIE E. McCOY. 

WILL OF ISAAC McCOY. 

I, Isaac McCoy, Missionary of the North American Indians, now in West- 
port, Jackson County, Missouri, bein^ in common health and in the exercise 
of ordinary soundness of judgment, do make this my last will and testament, 
viz: 

I Avill and beaueath to my sons John Calvin McCoy and Isaac McCov, and 
to my daughters Delilah McCoy Lykins. Christiana McCoy Ward, and Eleanor 
McCov and the heirs of my daughter Sarah McCoy Givens, deceased, each a 
large bible with marginal references and to each a Butterworth Concordance, 
the whole to be purchased out of movable p- operty now in mv possession, and 
to each cash which added to the value of the aforementioned books shall make 
the amount bequeathed to each equal to $10.00, these books I Bequeath not on 

—93- 



account of their pecuniary value, but as indicating a father's regard for his 
children and the earnestness which he would recommend to them the perusal 
of the sacred scripture. 

2: I will and bequeath to my daughter Eleanor McCoy $50.00, I having 
heretofore given to my daughter Christiana M. Ward a similar sum at her 
marriage and having given to my daughters Sarah McCoy Givens deceased 
and to my daughter Delilah McCoy Lykins each a little over $50.00. My 
movable ],roperty consists of 3 horses a few cattle and swine and such amount 
of farming implements, household and kitchen furniture etc. as is hereby suf- 
ficient for our current convenience in the moderate style of our living, of 
books, papers etc. 

This movable property I have procured out of my earnings in the service 
of the government of the United States and with the exception of the sums 
heretofore given to my daughters as before stated it is the whole amount 
which I have saved or applied to private purposes. 

3: I will and bequeath the whole of my movable property mentioned in 
the preceding paragraph to my wife Christiana McCoy, excepting so much as 
may be necessary to pay my just debts and to pay the sums above mentioned 
and bequeathed to my sons and daughters and to pay my funeral expenses. 
The residue of my property consists of 4 tracts of land, containing in the 
whole a little over 500 acres, and a female slave named Chainy. This prop- 
erty of land and a slave is in part of the proceeds of the property owned by 
me arid my wife before we became Missionaries and in part an amount left in 
my hands by my son Rice at hig decease. No portion of this property having 
come into my possession in any other way than the two sources above men- 
tioned. I have ever considered it as properly belonging to my family and that 
I could not in justice to them consider it in paying the costs of living. 

4: I will and bequeath the whole of the aforementioned 4 tracts of land 
containing in the whole a little over 500 acres to my wife Christiana McCoy; 
the slave above mentioned was purchased on the 13th day of July, 1835, and 
paid for her $415.00. She had been sold by her late owner and appeared to be 
consigned for the New Orleans Slave Market, she and her husband entreated 
me with mai\y tears to remember her and prevent her being torn from a hus- 
band and many children. The appeal was too affecting to be resisted. I 
bought her from motives of humanity, also as I believe to the gratification of 
my neighbors and of my Missionary brethren, all appearing to be deeply af- 
fected with the prospect of everlasting separation of this poor Negro family. 
I have ever been averse to holding a slave as property, and I did not promise 
to do more than to advance the money for her to prevent her from being sent 
to the South, until she should find another suitable person for a master to her 
and her husband and children. By law she is my property at this time, and, 

5: I will and bequeath that the above mentioned female slave Chainy 
shall remain the property of my wife Christiana McCoy until she said Chainy 
shall by her services, reckoned at the rate of the usual line of female slaves 
in this country under circumstances similar to those which shall attend her 
during the years of her servitude, repay the said Christiana McCoy or her 
heirs for the $415 paid for her with interest at 6% per annum, and then when 
her services rated as above directed shall equal the said sum of $415.00, with 
6% interest, she the said female slave Chainy shall become free from bondage. 

6: I will and bequeath that if the above mentioned female slave Chainy 
shall, during the term of her slavery, bear a child or children, then the said 
offspring shall be instructed to read with facility before arriving at the age 
of 27 years and then "He" shall go free from bondage and if a female, she 
shall remain a slave until she arrives at the age of 24 years and then she 
shall go free from bondage, and all the descendants of the said female slave 
Chainy to the latest "generation" generation who shall be bom in slavery shall 
be instructed to read with facility before arriving at the age of 20 years, and 
all the females shall go free from bondage at the age of 24 years. 

It being directed that no male descendants of the said female slave 
Chainy shall so remain a slave after reaching the age of 27 years and that no 
female descendant of the said slave Chainy shall remain a slave after reach- 
ing the age of 24 years. 

My daughter Nancy Judson McCoy is mentally and physically incapable 
of taking care of herself, her mind and the proper use of her limbs were im- 
paired we believe by a nervous fever since we her parents became Missionaries 
to the Indians, previously she appeared to possess common activity of body 

—94— 



and sprightliness of thought, for her future comfort, I feel deep solicitude and 
to provide for her future comfort is one reason which induces me to leave the 
most of my property to my wife believing that she will wisely apply it for the 
use and benefit of our afflicted daughter Nancy Judson McCoy excepting so 
much as will be necessary for her own comfort and the comfort and education 
of our two minor children Isaac and "Eleanor" during their minority, and, 

7: I will and bequeath that should my wife Christiana die without direct- 
mg how the property then in her possession shall be disposed of all such 
property excepting so much as shall be necessary for the comfort and educa- 
tion of my children Isaac and Eleanor during their minority shall be applied 
to the use and comfort of my said daughter Nancy Judson McCoy in the man- 
ner that shall be most productive of benefit to her. 

8: I will and bequeath that all property which is or shall become mine 
by heirship or otherwise shall become the property of my wife Christiana 
McCoy. 

I devise that the Journals of the Missions and all my other papers and 
such manuscripts and books as I shall have written together with all other 
books in my possession, which in some degree embraces subjects relating to 
the Indians, be safely kept together and preserved in the care first of my 
wife and afterwards in the care of my family descendants, excepting as care- 
ful persons under a pledge for their safe keeping and return be allowed to 
examine them for laudable purpose. I desire that if it can be done without 
needless expense that means be taken to perpetuate the recollection of the 
places of the graves of my deceased children Mahala Elizabeth, Marie 
Slaughter, Josephus and his infant brother Charles Rice and Sarah. 

For execution of this my last will and testament, I hereby appoint as my 
Executrix my wife Christiana McCoy and as my executors Johnston Lykins 
and John Calvin McCoy. 

My first care is for my family, my second is for the Indians, for both, 
I desire to labor while I live and to pray while I am dying. 

ISAAC McCOY, 

Westport, Jackson County, Missouri, July 30th, 1835. 
ATTEST: 

ROBERT SIMERWELL, 
JONATHAN MEEKER. 



—95— 




WASHINGTON HENRY CHICK. 
1826-1918. 



-96- 



A JOURNEY TO MISSOURI IN 1822. 

Written for the Historical Society by Washington Henry Chick in 
1916, when lie was ninety years old He tells of the emigration to 
this State of his father, Colonel William Miles Chick, and mother, 
Eliza Smitli Chick, tlie year after Missouri's admission to Statehood. 

My father and mother were both born in Virginia ; father near 
Lynchburg on a farm; mother in the city of Alexandria, both in 
1'790's and were married in 1816 in Alexandria, Va. 

During the war with Great Britain 1812 my father was com- 
missioned Colonel and instructed to raise a regiment by the Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, which he did and had it ready for orders to move 
to the front. In 1815 before receiving the order to go to the front 
at New Orleans, Jackson defeated the English at the battle before 
New Orleans thereby ending the war and causing the disbursement 
of the regiment. 

In 1822 he with my mother came to Missouri, They left Alex- 
andria, Virginia, in the early spring in large wagons, bringing with 
them two children, leaving their oldest child with my mother's 
mother. They traveled over the road to Pittsburgh, Pa., crossing 
the Alleghany mountains. On reaching Pittsburgh they procured 
flat boats, loaded their belongings therein, consisting of house- 
hold goods, wagons, horses and the family and negro servants, and 
started on their voyage down the Ohio River. 

After many days of hardships and perils both from the river 
and Indians, they finally reached Shawnee town in Illinois, where 
they disembarked, loaded their wagons and started for St. Louis, 
reaching there in the fall; crossed the Mississippi in a flat boat 
to St. Louis, a village of a few thousand, where they purchased such 
supplies as were needed ; then they pushed on for Saline County, 
crossing the Missouri river at St. Charles and again at a point near 
where Glasgow is now, located and settled on a farm in the Mis- 
souri river bottom a few miles west of Glasgow. 

They remained there until the spring of 1826 when the great 
flood came upon them and not only washed their houses away, 
but most of the land and deposited it on the other side of the river 
in Chariton County. 

Father then moved to Howard County where he owned some 
land and opened a farm, then some five miles from Glasgow, and 
now is near the Charleston River. Here he remained until 1836 
when he sold his farm and moved to Westport, Mo., and engaged 
in the general merchandise business, which he conducted for some 
years. 

Howard County was then covered with a dense growth of 
timber requiring much labor to open a farm. There was much 
game in the countrj^ affording fine hunting. The woods were full 
of wild turkeys. In the fall they would come into the barn yard 
m great flocks and feed upon the grain scattered by the stock at 
feeding time. Once, when we had been threshing wheat (the old 
fashioned way ; making a threshing floor of the earth and spread- 
ing the sheafs of wheat thereon, then taking horses, riding and 
driving them around and over the wheat until it was threshed 
out) a large flock of turkeys came into the lot and were feeding 
upon the grain when father took his shot gun and at one fire killed 
six. Back in the timber from the house we built a turkey trap of 
logs, making an entrance by digging a ditch under the logs. Com- 

—97— 



ing into the trap near the middle, we strewed corn in the ditch and 
trap. The turkeys would follow the corn, eating until in the trap, 
when, to their surprise, they could find no way out ; for they never 
looked down, but always up ; so they were safe until we were ready 
to catch and kill them. We secured many and would pack them 
away in salt for winter use. The squirrels were great pests and 
destroyed much com in the fall of the year, so that some continually 
guarded the side of the farm next to the timber in day time to 
kill or drive them away. 

The principal crop was tobacco, that provided the cash for 
buying sugar, coffee and other groceries necessary for the family. 

The women of the family manufactured the goods for clothing 
the family from wool, flax and cotton raised on the farm. The 
loom and spinning wheel were in continual use during the year, so 
there was but little demand for money for clothing, and all our 
shoes were also manufactured at home. 

Farms were far apart. Our nearest neighbor being fully a 
mile distant, but as all could ride horse back, this did not interfere 
much with neighborly courtesies. 

The schools were very primitive and the children had long 
walks to get to school houses built of logs; seats were made of 
logs split in two, with pegs for support stuck underneath ; no back 
to them nor any way to rest the weary children through the day, 
and with teachers who probably knew but little to teach. 

Father owned a negro man by the name of Manuel, who was 
boss of the working force on the farm, who was very efficient and 
took great pride in getting much work done. As a reward for his 
faithfulness he was allowed every Saturday afternoon for his own 
use. I was a great favorite when a small child with him, and as 
he often went to town (Old Chariton) to spend his leisure time and 
to make purchases for himself and others, he would, with father's 
permission, take me with him, picking me up, placing me on his 
shoulder, trotting off to town. The first thing, after reaching town 
he would buy what he called a section of ginger cake, then we would 
walk across the street to an old log lying there ; sit down and pro- 
ceed to dispose of our ginger cake. After making purchases, he 
would place me on his shoulder and go home. 

One day on our way to town, as we passed the race track, there 
was a large crowd racing horses ; the old darkey stopped and soon 
became interested in the races and picking his horse, put up all 
the money he had. I also put up all I had, a twelve and one-half 
cent piece, called a bit in those days. We lost and as we had no 
money, gave up the trip to town and went home. I have never seen 
a horse race since and have no desire to see another one. 

When we settled in Westport there were probably not over 
fifty persons living in the town. I do not remember where there 
was another store in the town. James M. Hunter was then running 
a saddler's shop, beside these, I think there were no business houses, 
unless you call dram shops business houses, of these there were 
several. My father's store was located on the northeast corner of 
the square where the old Harris house was afterward built. It was 
a two-story, double log house, and the family lived in the upper part 
of the building. The hazel brush was very thick all around the 
town. Just back of the store room, within twenty feet of it, it was 

'^98— 



fully ten feet high, and so thick a dog could scarcely get through 
it. The trade at that time was with Indians, Shawnees and Dela- 
wares, principally, but many other tribes did much of their trad- 
ing in town. There were but few whites living west of the Blue 
River at that time. In a few years emigration being heavy, set- 
tlers came in and both the town and country grew rapidly. Sev- 
eral stores were opened by the new comers, and business increased 
rapidly, and Westport soon became an important point. 

At this time we had no Post Office, Independence being the 
nearest ; we had to go there for our mail for some years before an 
office was established in Westport. 

The Indians were very fond of whiskey, and, as the dealers 
were ready to supply them, they drank heavily. I have seen as 
many as one hundred drunken Indians in the town at one time, 
riding their ponies at full speed, greatly to the danger of pedes- 
trians. It finally became so bad that the citizens of the town and 
country took the matter in hand and resolved to put a stop to the 
sale of whiskey to Indians. In mass meeting they decided to de- 
mand of saloon keepers that they deliver their stock of liquors to a 
committee of citizens to be held by them until they could make some 
disposition of them. Some half dozen of them complied ; one man 
would not do so. The people gathered en masse, went to his saloon, 
when he met them with an axe in his hand, and said he would 
kill the first man attempting to enter his door. Possibly some- 
where between thirty and fifty men were in the crowd. After 
parleying with him for some time a young man, by name of William 
Jack, cried out : "My Daddy sent me here to do the work," picked 
up a log lying in the street, put it on his shoulder, and said "I must 
do it, come on boys." He made a run for the door, knocked the man 
with the axe down and the door into kindling wood. They rolled 
the whiskey into the street, knocked in the barrel-heads, poured the 
whiskey into the gutter; broke every bottle in the shop, and then 
retired peacefully to their homes. This, for a time, settled the 
saloon business in Westport, but soon the saloon again opened, 
but were disposed to be more careful about selling to the Indians, 
and Westport enjoyed a season of quiet. 

My father, being one of the original owners (comprised of a 
company of fourteen men) of Kansas City, decided in the tall of 
1843 to move to Kansas City and settled on a farm of about four- 
teen acres just west of where the Union Depot now stands, and 
prepared to build a business house on the corner of Main Street 
and the Levee, which was erected during the winter of 1843 of logs 
cut across the river in what is now Harlem, and was ready for the 
early spring business. This was the only business house in Kan- 
sas City, and only one other house in the town limits ; that being 
a two-story, double log house erected and owned by W. B. Evans, 
and occupied by him as a dwelling and hotel, except a small log 
warehouse, erected by the town company for storing such goods 
as was discharged by boats for Westport and other points. 

In June, 1844, the flood came down the Kansas River and 
washed every house out of the West Bottoms (as now called), in- 
cluding my father's. This being his second experience with high 
water, he concluded to build on high ground and erected the first 

—99— 



house on the bluffs at the corner of Walnut and Pearl Streets, a 
double log house, two stories high, where he lived until his death 
in 1847. 







The CHICK MANSION on Pearl street, from photograph after its days of splen- 
dor were over. 

There was but little business done in the town in 1844, the 
flood having pretty well destroyed the prospects for that season. 

In 1843 the Wyandotte Indians moved from Ohio and settled 
just across the Kansas River and opposite Kansas City, having pur- 
chased several sections from the Delaware Indians. They created 
quite a trade for the new town of Kansas City, and in a few years 
some of their prominent men opened business in Kansas City. They 
were well civilized, and many of them well educated. Many of the 
men, as well as some of the women, became very prominent, and 
leaders in business and society. The younger, both men and women, 
mixing and visiting with the whites on this side of the river socially, 
and enjoying western life, attending parties, balls, and taking part 
in all social events, as well as religious exercises, and in return the 
society girls and boys from this side o£ the river would visit all 
social gatherings across the Kaw River. Many of the Wyandotte 
women were very beautiful and their society much sought after by 
the young gallants from this side of the river. As a consequence, 
many marriages took place between them. Most of these were be- 
tween half breeds, and many of the Wyandotte men were married 
to white women ; in fact, when they came here there were very few- 
full blood Indians belonging to the tribe. Several of the prominent 
men of the tribe became active business men in Kansas City, and 
aided greatly in building up the town in its early days ; among them 
Joel Walker, Silas Armstrong and others engaged in business on 



—100— 



this side of the line. Among the most prominent were William 
Walker, Mathew Walker, the Garrets, several of them, Mathew 
Mudeater, the Clark family, the Longs, the Zanes, Isaiah Walker 
and many others whose names 1 can't recall. These were the origi- 
nal settlers and owners of what is now Kansas City, Kansas, and 
they platted and owned the town of Wyandotte City. There are 
some few of the tribe still living in Wyandotte County, Kansas. 
Most of the tribe emigrated to the Indian Territory some years ago 
and settled in the Cherokee and Creek nations where they now 
reside. 

Could the children of the present day see and understand the 
great advantages they have over the children of fifty to seventy 
years ago they would be profoundly thankful. Now they have the 
modern fine improved and finished, warm and comfortable school 
houses that modern art can produce, with everything made to com- 
fort them, while in the far past the school houses generally only 
one room, built of logs, often not hewed, simply round logs with 
what was called chinking between the logs, and plastered over to 
keep out the cold, with but one large fire place to warm the room, 
and poorly lighted, with a long plank in the place of a desk fastened 
to the logs on one side, and with a long, narrow window just above 
it, where they had to do their writing, standing up; on the other 
side of the house two small windows, and at the back or side op- 
posite the fire one window and one door, the only place to enter or 
retire from the room. Then, with some thirty to fifty scholars all 
in the one room, the different classes reciting their lessons with 
only one teacher for the whole school, with no privacy or place to 
study other than the one room, you can easily see the difference 
between now and then. The school houses were often located out 
in the forest, seldom within a mile of the nearest house, the children 
compelled to walk, from one to three miles to school, and home again 
in the evenings, no matter how deep the snow or mud, as the case 
might be, with poor shoes (no rubbers those days) without over- 
coats and but thinly clad in home made jeans, without lining, with 
no flannels, only a thin cotton shirt. But then they did not mind the 
wet and cold, they were used to roughing it and would laugh at the 
mud, the snow and the cold, and thought they were the happiest and 
luckiest children in the world, for they lived in the land of the free 
and the brave and cared little for their surroundings. 

The school sessions generally lasted only through the winter 
months, as the boys were needed to work the farm, as soon as plow- 
ing could be done, and the girls for the house work. No trips to 
the lakes or summer touring, but hard plodding work from day- 
light till dark all through spring, summer and fall, and then when a 
teacher could be procured, to school again for the winter. Not- 
withstanding the hardships seemingly through which they had 

—101— 



to pass, they were as happy, and possibly more so, than the chil- 
dren of this age. The nearest school house to my father's home 
was something over a mile, and the road through a dense wood. It 
was a lonely walk for little ones in the dark, short days of winter. 
I only remember of attending school in this house one winter or 
session. The next nearest school house was two miles away, there 
we spent several winters. The teacher, Bohannan by name, was a 
kind, pleasant man, but required strict observance of his rules and 
would thrash disobedient scholars, whether large or small, until 
they submitted to his rule. At one time one of the scholars, a grown 
man with whiskers on his face, had broken some of the rules of 
school. The teacher said to him he was too large to whip, but that 
he must punish him; gave him his choice either to be dismissed 
from school or take a whipping. He said he could not afford to lose 
the opportunity of school and would submit to the whipping, so in 
the presence of all the scholars, he took off his coat when the teacher 
gave him a severe thrashing. 

This teacher w^as very fond of fun and would use play time 
in playing ball or some game with the scholars. At one Christmas 
time the school asked for a holiday. He told them he would not 
grant it, but wanted every scholar there on Christmas morning. 
The boys said nothing, but quietly conspired to turn the teacher 
out on Christmas morning, agreeing to meet early and bar the 
door so that he could not get in, but he suspecting what was going 
on, also came early, entered the room rapped for order and ordered 
every one to get their books and begin the day's work. Every one 
in the room took their seats. In a little while he called the class 
to recite and only one walked out to the middle of the room. When 
the others did not come he ordered the one on the floor to proceed 
with the lesson, he, taking courage from the action of the others, 
refused. After repeated attempts to get him to proceed, he re- 
marked that ii kind words would not do, he would try what virtue 
there was in a switch, so he left the room, pretending to go for a 
switch. The larger boys immediately barred the door and windov/s 
with the benches (which in those days were simply logs split in half 
with pegs stuck in them for legs without backs or any support for 
the children) and awaited the return of the teacher. Instead of 
returning he started for his home and to get his horse. After 
waiting some little while for his return, they looked out of the win- 
dow and saw him some half mile away running at the top of his 
speed. They immediately gave chase and ran him around through 
the woods until about two o'clock p. m., when they caught and 
brought him to the school house and then demanded two weeks' 
holiday. He refused ; said he v/ould not give holiday. After a long 
parley they concluded to take him to a pond and duck him until he 

—102— 



would consent. After carrying him half way to the pond he said : 
"Hold on, boys, I will give you one week." "No," they replied, "two 
weeks, or a ducking." "I can't give it," he said, so they picked him 
up, carried him to the pond and gave him one more chance. He 
finally agreed to give the two weeks, and after a little while he in- 
vited the whole school out in the woods to a banquet he had prepared 
for a Christmas treat. There we found an old negro man in charge 
with all kinds of eatables ; cakes, apples, pies, nuts, and above all, 
two great big turkeys roasted, cut up and ready for eating. When 
we got through with the feast it was dark and a long, cold \\alk of 
from two to three miles home, but all were happy and the teacher 
the most pleased and happiest one in the bunch. 

After leaving Howard County my father moved to Westport 
in Jackson County. Here we found a small school house, one room, 
built of logs out in the woods about half a mile from the town. 
One of the teachers we had there was very fond of play and at every 
opportunity, was out with the boys playing ball or some other game. 
In summer when we had school he would give a recess from eleven 
in the morning until two o'clock and say to the boys, "eat your lunch 
and all break for Brush Creek, and I can beat any boy in the school 
there." We would plunge into the creek and swim and play for an 
hour or two, then return and resume our studies. 



—103— 



THE CONDITION OF MISSOURI AT THE TIME OF THE 
LOUISIANA PURCHASE IN 1804. 

By DR. WILLIAM L. CAMPBELL. 

The subject of this paper is the condition of Missouri at the 
time of the consummation of the Louisiana purchase, March 10, 
1804. By the Louisiana purchase is meant the acquisition by the 
United States from France of, broadly speaking, the territory west 
of the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. In the year 1800, 
Napoleon Bonaparte, jealous of the growing importance of Spain 
and England, in the new world, wielding the iron hand of power, 
forced Spain into the treaty of Idelfonso, made October 1, 1800, by 
which she ceded to France all of her territory known as Louisiana, 
west of the Mississippi River, in consideration that the Prince of 
Parma, who was a son-in-law to the King of Spain, should be 
established in Tuscany. Accordingly, in July, 1802, the Spanish 
authorities were directed to deliver possession to the French com- 
missioners, but the act was not consummated until December 20, 
1803. The supremacy of England on the high seas at this period 
practically prevented France from instituting any acts by trans- 
ferring troops to the newly acquired territory, and France wisely 
resolved to accept the offer of the United States, and sell the vast 
territory to that government for $15,000,000.00. This purchase, 
accomplished during the administration of President Jefferson, 
was formally concluded on the 30th of April, 1803, and on the 21st 
of October, 1803, Congress ratified the treaty. The formal trans- 
fer did not take place in St. Louis, as most persons think, but took 
place in New Orleans, in December, 1803. The agent designated by 
France for securing possession of Upper Louisiana from the Span- 
ish, for the Spanish commander was still in charge in St. Louis, 
was Capt. Amos Stoddard, a captain of artillery, in the service of 
the United States. He received the title from the Spanish to the 
French, March 9, 1804, and on the next day (March 10) trans- 
ferred it to the United States. The settled portions of Missouri 
were then for the purposes of local government divided into 
four districts, and the total white and slave population was 
about 10,200. In numerical strength the Anglo-American, not 
the French, predominated, even in that day. Kansas City was in 
the district of St. Louis. Jackson County, according to Switzer's 
History of Missouri, was settled in 1807. In 1803, an expedition 
to explore the country from the Mississippi River to the Pacific 
Ocean, called the Lewis and Clark, was formed, and it set out up 
the Missouri River, May 16, 1804, and explored to the Pacific 
Ocean, returning to St. Louis September 29, 1806. On its way up, 
the expedition stopped at the mouth of the Kaw River, over- 
hauled its boats, court martialed two members of the party for 
drunkenness, and reported that there was a multitude of birds 
named paroquets here, and but few Indians. The Kansas River 
Indians clung to their old ways of bows and arrows, but other 
Indians had obtained gun powder and bullets from white traders, 
and had decimated the first-named Indians, and the remnant was 
at that time away, temporarily, further west on a buffalo hunt. 
The paroquet is now extinct. 

—104— 



In opening this paper, I would state that if any one has the 
impression that Missouri was a wilderness, inhabited solely by 
savages at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century — that is the 
time of the Louisiana purchase — that idea is an erroneous one. 
According to unquestioned authorities, the population, not includ- 
ing Indians, of the town of St. Louis and adjoining settlements in 
the year 1788, the time being before the Louisiana purchase, 
reached nearly 1,200, while that of St. Genevieve was alDout 800. 
In 1799, other Missouri towns and their population were: St. 
Charles, 875 ; St. Ferdinand, 276 ; Marius der Liard, 376 ; Meramec, 
115; St. Andrew, 393 ; St, Genevieve, 949; New Bourbon, 560; Cape 
Girardeau, 521; New Madrid, 782, and Little Meadour, 72. The 
total was over 6,000 — no Indians included. Of these, a little less 
than 5,000 were white persons and approximately 1,100 negroes. 
Of these negroes 200 were free, and the rest were slaves. 

Having spoken of the eastern part of the State, I will now 
refer to the condition of the western part in that early day. 

That Gazetteer of the State of Missouri, published in St. Louis 
in 1837, has on page 194 the following paragraph in reference to 
this exact location, the site of Kansas City, in the year 1705, long 
before the American Revolution. It shows that white men carried 
en a fur trade at this point 209 years ago. The paragraph reads : 

"The French then in 1705 ascended the Missouri as far as the Kan- 
sas river, the point where the western boundary line of Missouri now 
strikes the Missouri river. The Indians there cheerfully engaged in 
trade with them, and all the tribes on the Missouri, with the exception 
of the Blackfeet and the Arickaras, have since generally continued on 
friendly terms with the whites. It should be observed that the French 
traders have always been more fortunate in their intercourse with the 
Indians than those of any other nation." 

On page 266 of the 9th volume of the reports of the Kansas 
State Historical Society, there is further proof that there were 
white men living in Missouri along the Missouri River and vicinity 
214 (1913) years ago. It states: 

"As early as 1700, there were not less than 100 coureurs des bois 
or trappers domiciled among the Missouri river. The coureur des bois 
was a type of the earliest pioneer now long extinct. He was a French 
Canadian, and in his habits was blended the innocent simplicity of the 
fun-loving French and the wild traits and woodcraft of the Indian. 
Born in the woods, he was accustomed from childhood to hardships and 
exposures of a wild life in the wilderness, and was a skillful hunter and 
trapper. His free and easy going manners, peaceable disposition and 
vivacity, qualified him for association with the Indian, whose customs 
he adopted, and he often married into the tribe and became one of its 
number. It was this roving individual who, as he wandered up and 
do'WTi the Missouri river, gave the poetic and musical French names to 
its tributaries and prominent localities that they bear to this day, such 
as the Marias des Cygnes (river of the Swans), Creve Cour (broken 
heart), Cote sans dessein (a hill without a cause), Roche Percee (pierced 
rock). Bonne Femme (a good woman), Aux vasse Gasconade (turbu- 
lent). La Mine (the mine), Pomme de Terre (apple of the earth — potato), 
Moreau (very black), and Niangre (crooked). 

Chittenden's American Fur Trade, Volume 1, p. 56, will con- 
firm the statements just made. 

As the French voyageurs could neither read nor write, no rec- 
ord of his annual trip was made by him, and hence none are pre- 
served. By this I do not mean men like Choteau, Lisa and Sarpy. 
They were employers in the days of the fur trade when carried on 

—105— 



by individuals, and antedated that great concern known as the 
American Fur Company, of which organization my grandfather's^ 
brother was the St. Louis manager for several years subsequent 
to the year 1824. 

Now, I would ask the question, if there were 100 whites domi- 
ciled among the Indians along the Missouri River in 1700, what 
ratio of increase might we reasonably expect in 1804 — more than 
a century having elapsed? An implied proof is found in the fact 
that by a treaty of June 3, 1825, special provision was made for 
each of the half breeds of the Kansas nation. These half breeds 
were the children of the white men who had married squaws, and 
the Kansas Indians lived in the vicinity of what is now Kansas 
City. The year 1825 was just twenty-one years after 1804, and 
was the year of attaining majority for any half breed child bom 
at the time of the accession of the territory by the United States. 

Mention has already been made of the French trading with 
the Indians on the bank of the Missouri, at the confluence of the 
Kaw River, in the year 1700. This location seems to have been a 
meeting point with the French for about 166 years. Did you ever 
hear of the French Bottom, with reference to describing a location 
at Kansas City ? You may never have heard it, but it was a name 
as familiar to the old-timers as East Bottoms is to the people of 
today. The name French Bottoms is now obsolete. To quote 
Blackstone, "From the time to which the memory of man runneth 
not to the contrary" up to the advent of railroads there, say about 
1867, the tract bounded on the north by the Missouri River, on the 
south by Turkey Creek where it now is, not by where it was in 
that day ; on the west by Kaw River, and on the east by the bluffs, 
now about Bluff and Lincoln Streets, was called the French Bot- 
toms. The late Dr. I. M. Ridge once made an address before this 
society, with the "French Bottoms" as the subject. A tablet com- 
memorating this name should be placed in some conspicuous spot 
in the West Bottoms. 

History also chronicles the assertion that, in 1800, Louis 
Bertholet, a Frenchman, had a trading post on the Missouri River, 
at what is now the southern extremity of the Milwaukee Bridge, 
in the East Bottoms, in Kansas City. You will find this statement 
in regard to Louis Bertholet on page 405 of volume Tv of Conavd's 
Encyclopedia of History of Missouri — a set of books donated to the 
public library by J. V. C. Karnes. Lewis and Clark, however, do 
not speak of this trading post, but they landed there, and Lewis 
took the latitude and the longitude. The post was on exactly the 
opposite side of the river from what we now call the Thomas H. 
Benton Rock, a point of historic significance to this society, and 
the stone on which Thomas H. Benton stood when he made his 
prediction in regard to the future greatness of Kansas City. We 
know that Daniel Morgan Boone, the noted pioneer who came to 
Missouri from Kentucky in 1787, was a trapper on the Blue River, 
principally between here and Independence, for twelve years. 

Concerning the principal resources of this country in 1804, I 
would say that what is now Missouri was known as a country of 
mineral wealth long before it was under control of the United 

iRobert Campbell. 

—106— 



states. The pioneers who first visited this country came in search 
of minerals and furs, and this region became famous for both at 
the same time. Impress it on your memory that Missouri is one 
of the old parts of the United States. Away back in the year 1541, 
the first European set foot on Missouri soil. The place where New 
Madrid now stands. It was De Soto's band of Spaniards who did 
this. Col. W. F. Switzler, Missouri's historian, emphasizes this 
point in his book on the history of the State. As far as my re- 
search has led me, this assertion is not contradicted, but other 
authors concur in the statement. No permanent settlement, how- 
ever, was made. 

You have heard how the Boston people in Revolutionary days 
pulled down the leaden statue of George III, and moulded it into 
bullets to be shot against the soldiers of the aforesaid George, but 
Missouri did better than that. How many have heard that Mis- 
souri furnished lead from her own mines, to be used by American 
soldiers in the days of the American Bevolution ? History records 
it as a fact that such was the case. The lead was taken down the 
Mississippi River, and shipped by way of New Orleans. It was 
taken from Mine La Motte, a mine discovered in 1720, by two 
Frenchmen, La Motte and Renaud, and, as lead was a valuable 
commodity in the frontier days, the discovery of a large deposit of 
it right at home made it of especial value in those times of crude 
transportation facilities, the lead itself being such heavy material. 
The first reverberatory furnace for the purpose of reducing lead 
ore erected in the United States — that is in what afterward became 
a part of the United States— was put up in Missouri, by Moses 
Austin, in 1789, near Potosi. He was an American, but he secured 
from the Spanish government a large grant of land. Saltpetre was 
found as a deposit in the caves along the Gasconade River in early 
days, and was used in the manufacture of gun powder, so that the 
pioneer had two most useful articles, powder and lead, right at his 
door. 

With reference to the commerce, I would say that the bulk of 
the commerce was along the navigable streams. During the entire 
Eighteenth Century, the navigation of the Missouri River was 
confided to the wooden canoe, and its commerce was limited to the 
primitive fur trade. It became, however, a trade of considerable 
magnitude. It is certain that by the time that St. Louis was estab- 
lished, in 1764, the fur trade of the French upon the Missouri 
River had become well established. Scharf's History of St. Louis, 
Vol., pp. 272 to 276 ; and when the United States government for- 
mally took possession of the Louisiana Territory, at Main and Wal- 
nut Street, March 10, 1804, St. Louis had a large trade in hides and 
furs, lead and whisky, and some trade in salt. Beads, fire arms, 
blankets, and articles of that kind were shipped to St. Louis and 
handled by the merchants there, but were not local productions. 
There was a real estate boom, an era of speculation in St. Louis 
and Eastern Missouri from 1800 to 1804. That does not sound like 
a howling wilderness story. The salt mentioned did not come from 
Saline Springs in the Boone Lick country, but was found in salt 
pits, the exact location of which I am unable to give. Concerning 
the liquor trade of that day, let me cite an instance of difference 
of public sentiment between then and now. Kansas City has been 

—107— 



in the throes of anti-saloon agitation recently, with special refer- 
ence to Westport Avenue and East Fifteenth Street. In that day, 
two large land grants were made by the Spanish government for 
distillery purposes, then a third to supply fuel for the distilleries, 
after which no more whisky was imported into the province of 
Upper Louisiana. Home production was equal to home consump- 
tion. One of these grants was made to Col. Auguste Chouteau, 
who built the first distillery in St. Louis. 

The Indians that were in Missouri in 1804 were the Osages, 
Sac and Fox, Missouris, lowas, Kickapoos, Shawnees and Dela- 
wares. These are the tribes generally enumerated. My own im- 
pression is, there must have been some of the Miamis and the 
Kansas River Indians. I have also been informed of Indians that 
were in the south central part of the State, called Ozarks. They 
were a branch of one of the larger tribes. 

Missouri in that day had many evidences of a dense, prehis- 
toric population — antedating the Indians. These were mound- 
builders and cave-dwellers. Stone masonry of dressed stone was 
used by some of these prehistoric people, and they used machinery 
to a certain extent, particularly the lathe, in manufacturing turned 
articles. The savages did nothing of this kind. Among the mounds 
of this prehistoric people, found in this State, were several differ- 
ent kinds. There were burial, sacrificial and historical mounds, 
stone mounds and garden mounds. There were stone sepulchres in 
St. Louis and Perry counties. According to the writings of Prof. 
A. J. Conant, who made investigation of Missouri mounds, it is 
easy for an archaeologist to distinguish an Indian burial mound 
from a mound builder's mound. I will quote Professor Conant's 
exact language: "That Missouri was the home of a vast popula- 
tion, composed of tribes who had fixed habitations, dwelt in large 
towns, practiced agriculture on a large scale, with a good deal of 
method and skill, who had also a well organized system of religious 
rites and worship, and whose aesthetic tastes were far in advance 
of the savage tribes, who roamed over the prairies and hill ranges, 
when her great rivers were first navigated by white men, is, I am 
confident, no difficult matter to prove." I would say that the 
metropolis, the capital city, the seat of government of this ancient 
people was where New Madrid now is. St. Louis was formerly 
called the mound city, and many mounds were found there. The 
Great Mound was a particular instance, and it was probably used 
for purposes of sun worship. 

The caves of Missouri existed in the days of Lewis and Clark 
as they do now — unchanged to this day. Along the Gasconade 
River are caves in cliffs, sometimes 250 feet above the level of the 
stream. We read little about them, and the general public is not 
aware of their existence. The caves of Pulaski County, situated on 
the cliffs of the Gasconade, should be a subject of exploration for a 
Kansas City party, and for special articles for Kansas City Sunday 
papers. Among these were the saltpetre caves mentioned. Some 
of these were burial places, but not Indian burial places. They 
antedate the savages. The Indians, it is well known, kept away 
from these caves, and avoided them. They regarded these gloomy 
caverns with superstitious fear; for in them they believed the 
Great Manitou dwelt. In St. Louis and in the other old French set- 

—108— 



tlements, there was a gay social life, many years before the coun- 
try belonged to the United States, and these French customs pre- 
vailed long after the United States had the country. Capt. Amos 
Stoddard, in his history, speaks of it. I will mention the holiday 
attire of one of the principal ladies of St. Louis, quoted from a 
book of descriptions written by a woman : "Her petticoat was of 
black satin, and her short gown or jacket was of purple velvet with 
wide lace in the sleeves and at the neck, and gorgeously beaded 
moccasins were on her feet. Her head dress seemed to be of some 
thin material, purple in color, and worn like a turban, but en- 
twined with ribbons and flowers until it became a gorgeous coro- 
net." 



FASHIONABLE PEARL STREET. 

Written for the Missouri Valley Historical iSociety in 1911 by the late Dr. 'William 

L. Campbell. 1 

The Otero house, in which Miguel Otero, recently governor of 
New Mexico, spent his days of early boyhood, stood on the emi- 
nence at the northwest corner of Fifth and Locust, then High 
Street. It is a brick dwelling, constructed in the days before the 
Civil War, and today it is apparently as substantial as when new. 
It is of severely plain style of architecture, and had no porches upon 
it to decay and give the building a dilapidated appearance. Miguel 
Otero, father of Governor Otero, occupied the house about the 
opening of the Civil War and also prior to that time. He was then 
engaged in what was known as the "Forwarding and Commission" 
business on the levee — nov/ an obsolete business, and even the 
words describing it do not convey any intelligent meaning to the 
average present-day reader. At that era of the city's existence 
it was probably the most profitable business in the place and the 
men were the best class of advertisers in the Journal of Commerce, 
now the Kansas City Journal. These advertisements were in the 
Spanish language, and were in huge display type, by the column. 
D. V. Whiting, who also occupied this house as a home, was in the 
forwarding and commission business at the southwest corner of 
Delaware Street and the Levee, in a large three-story brick build- 
ing, now a ruin, having been twice destroyed by fire. The first of 
these fires was a tragedy of that day followed by a long sequel in 

iDr. "Wllliain L. Campbell (1855-1919) was the son of John Campbell, one of 
the city's most famed pioneers and his wife. Charlotte (also born Campbell). 
Dr. Campbell was born in the historic old "Harris House" on Westport avenue. 
He saw the city expand from a frontier settlement into the second city of the 
State. An expert on local history, his great love for it, as a native, son, caused 
him to jealously g-uard its accurate recording-. 

He was a faithful spirit in the organization of this Historical Society and 
nothing ever preceded it in his interest and activities. He served the Society as 
director, vice-president and president. His death was an irreparable loss to our 
org-anization. (Ed.) 

—109— 



court — both civil suits and criminal proceedings. W. H. Chick, now 
(1911) of 1101 Brooklyn Avenue, was in the forwarding and com- 
mission business contemporaneous with Otero and Whiting, on the 
Levee midway between Main and Delaware Streets, and was burned 
out there in 1864 — a total loss, as no insurance could be procured 
owing to the unsettled condition of the times, because of the war. 
W. H. Chick lived in what was called a "Cincinnati house," another 
obsolete term — and the house was situated on the north side of 
Pearl between Grand Avenue and Walnut Street. Pearl is a short 
street — the first street north of Second Street, and extends from 
Walnut to Grand Avenue. It is used solely by the Metropolitan 
Street Railway Company, and is a deep cut fringed on the south 
side by a luxuriant growth of jessamines from the old Choteau 
homestead, and on the other side, at the top of the bank orna- 
mented by locust trees planted in the yard of John C. McCoy, J. S. 
BoaiTnan, William M. Chick, W. H. Chick and the Jarboes during 
the years from 1837 to 1860. The name Pearl, as a street desig- 
nation, is also an obsolete term. Even the street car men who run 
over it now do not know it by its proper nomenclature, and fur- 
thermore, the city authorities have let it slip their minds so far as 
to forget its place on the official plat book, and to allow another 
street to be called by the same name — Pearl Street, in Westport. 
It is an unallowable impropriety in any municipality to permit two 
streets to be called by a similar name, because of resulting con- 
fusion. Sixty years ago Pearl was the principal residence street 
of the town. Among the notables entertained there were Wash- 
ington Irving, Thomas H. Benton, John C. Fremont, and also 
church dignitaries — bishops of the Catholic and also of the Meth- 
odist churches. Desuetude to the extent of losing even its name 
among men was not thought of in that day. These houses on 
Pearl Street were not small inferior affairs, most of them were of 
brick. Only one house, that of Mr. W. H. Chick, the "Cincinnati 
house," was a cottage. It was called a Cincinnati house because 
it belonged to a class of frame houses constructed by a Cincinnati 
firm that manufactured what might be termed ready-made houses. 
People purchased these houses, and the manufacturing firm 
shipped them by steamboats in "the knock down," to be put to- 
gether and erected at their destination, the component parts being 
separate in shipment. None of the houses are now standing, but 
the Cincinnati house outlived them all, and survived the cyclone of 
1886 that destroyed some of its brick neighbors. It never did 
wear out, and was inhabited at the time of its destruction by fire, 
in 1896. The entire location is known now as "Hobo Hill," because 
of the numbers of tramps and vagrants who sleep on the ground 
there, particularly during the summer nights. 

Many of these Cincinnati houses were shipped to towns along 
the Missouri River, and a part of Leavenworth was called "Cin- 
cinnati," because it was made up of this kind of buildings. 

The house in which these Spanish "ads" were "set up" by the 
printer — the building where the Journal of Commerce was pub- 
lished — is the three-story brick structure at No. 10 Main Street, 
staunch and strong as when put up, over half a century ago, and 
neater in appearance in its second youth than in its earlier days. 

—110— 



It is used as a business office and repository by a large brewing 
company, and is kept up to the acme in the matter of fresh paint 
and repairs. Colonel R. T. Van Horn and Mr. D. K. Abeel, the 
owners and publishers, are still living, one here and the other in 
California.^ John McReynolds, the printer who "set up" the "ads" 
lives at 1415 East Sixteenth Street. 

At the north end of the block from the Otero home is still 
standing the home of I. W. McDonald, the town saddler of early 
days, although the owner is long since dead. This house is at the 
southwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets. Between it and 
the Otero place were the houses of the late Dr. Joseph M. Wood, 
the pioneer surgeon, and of Mr. Sim Kelly, now of Wichita. The 
Kelly house shows no evidence of old age, and in the warm months 
the yard is filled with a profusion of flowers. Across the street 
on the east side of it and opposite the Kelly and the Woods homes 
are the former dwellings of Dr. G. W. Tindall and John Evans. 
Both owners are dead. Mrs. Tindall survives. The houses are 
brick and appear to be good for a future century, surrounded as 
they are by a forest of trees, placed there when small by the early 
occupants. Diagonally opposite the McDonald home, at the north- 
east corner of Fourth and Locust Streets stood the house occupied 
by William Gilliss and his niece, Mrs. Mary A. Troost, at the time 
of Mr. Gilliss' death in 1869. It was a large brick house command- 
ing a view of the vicinity. Street excavation placed it about 25 
feet above grade, and while it fronted west, it was reached by a 
flight of steps on the Fourth Street side. The house has been 
torn down and the ground elevation of the lot reduced to the grade 
elevation of the street long ago; not a vestige remains. Mrs. 
Troost was a great lover of flowers, and the yard was a miniature 
botanical garden. At her death she left the flowers and shrubs to 
Samuel W. Gregory, then a boy. Prior to the Gilliss occupancy of 
this house Mr. Wheatley of Hubbell, Wheatley & Co., wholesale 
business men at Delaware Street and the Levee, lived there, and 
Mr. Gilliss then resided at his country home, now 2727 Holly 
Street. 

At 513 East Fourth Street, near the site of the Gilliss home is 
the house where lived A. L. Harris, now dead, formerly mayor of 
this city and subsequently of Durango, Colorado. The house is 
well kept and in excellent condition, resplendent in fresh paint, and 
is the home of a prosperous Italian. Mr. Harris was the father of 
Mrs. W. V. Lippincott and Mrs. John C. Moore. A two-story brick 
structure that stood at the southeast comer of Third and Delaware 
Streets was a history-maker. It was the home of W. G. Barkley, 
and in its parlor in May 1857, the first Presbyterian church in 
Kansas City was organized, under the pastorate of Rev. R. S. 
Symington, whose son is now a banker in Independence — the father 
having been dead for several years. Mr. Barkley was then in 
business with Jesse Riddlesbarger on the Levee near the store of 
W. H. Chick, and Mr. Riddlesbarger was also president of the 
Mechanics Bank, that stood at the northwest corner of Second and 
Main Streets, and from the basement of which building the Santa 
Fe stages started. Mr. Riddlesbarger's case was a striking exam- 



iBoth have died since this paper was written. 

—Ill— 



pie of the mutations of fortune. He died in the poor house at St. 
Louis about 32 years ago. Mr. Barkley left Kansas City, and was 
subsequently treasurer of Montana. He is now dead. The grader 
left the Barkley house 30 feet above the street level, and the house 
was razed and embankment reduced, and a three-story business 
house now stands on its site. 

It is my impression that General Swing's famous "Order No. 
11 "emanated from the Pacific House at Fourth and Delaware 
Street, one block south of the Barkley home. 

Antebellum structures are becoming more and more scarce in 
Kansas City every year. It may be interesting to relate as an 
instance that on Third Street — one of the old streets of the city — 
only five houses that were built before the Civil War are now 
standing. One is the Guinotte homestead at Third Street and 
Troost Avenue, another the Riley home at 514, a third, the James 
Mansfield store at 415 East Third Street, and a fourth, John 
Rooney's place, at 109 East Third Street, and fifth, 300 Main 
Street. The Riley and the Mansfield houses are the homes of 
Italians. Negroes are in the Rooney house. There are some 
north side houses standing that were built just after the close 
of the war — when business activity was renewed, and they are 
erroneously classed as older than they are. Along that length of 
Grand Avenue from Twelfth Street to the Missouri River are but 
two before-the-war houses. One of these is the dilapidated frame 
structures on the west side of the avenue at Sixth Street, now 
tenanted by Negroes, and the old Norton house — a frame house 
on the east side of the avenue north of Third Street, where Dr. 
Joshua Norton died in 1860, but this house has retrograded even 
too far for colored occupancy, and is now uninhabited. Mrs. 
Norton was one of the company that sat in the parlor of the 
Barkley house at the church organization previously mentioned, 
and was the last surviving member of this church, having but 
recently died. 

At the northeast corner of Campbell and Pacific Streets, in 
the Italian settlement just south of the Holy Rosary church, is 
a time-worn, two-story brick residence, where Francis Lynde 
passed his boyhood. Francis Lynde is now a novelist author of 
"The Grafters," and other books, and has long since left Kansas 
City for a home in the east. 

The largest of these old-time residences was the John Camp- 
bell house, that with its highly-ornamented grounds occupied the 
entire block on the east side of Campbell between Second and 
Third Streets. It was built in 1860 and 1861, and was an expen- 
sive building, particularly as to the interior decorations ; one item 
of which — the marble — was imported from Italy, and the stained 
glass was also of European manufacture. The house became a 
railway hospital in 1884, and about the grounds convalescent pa- 
tients strolled. After fifteen years of use as a hospital, the 
building was abandoned and torn down because of deep excava- 
tions in the vicinity and the prevalence of noxious fumes from 
neighboring brick yards. Prior to 1861 the Campbell home was a 
two-story brick house at Pearl and Walnut Streets, across the 
street from the Chick mansion and next door to that of Dr. John- 

—112-^ 




CAMPBELL HOME. 

"Fashionable Pearl Street" — This home once occupied a block of grountl. Camp- 
bell and Charlotte streets are named after Mr. Campbell and his wife. 

son Lykins. This house w?s originally owned by Captain Louis 
Sharp, a Missouri river steamboat man, and was destroyed in the 
cyclone of 1886. 

A group of east-side residences built before the war still 
stands on both sides of Charlotte, between Fourth and Fifth 
Streets, and Italians live in the homes that were once the domi- 
ciles of the Shannons, Chouteaus, Ashtons and others. 

On the Levee between Main and Walnuts Streets, a block 
of business houses that were built in the fifties remain. They are 
tenanted and are still used for business purposes. 

In nearly every instance the old houses that have disappeared 
were torn down to make room for more modern structures, in 
accordance with the idea that every city is built at least three 
times ; once a pioneer village, and then these houses are pulled 
down to make room for that of the town that succeeds the vil- 
lage, and in regular succession after a lapse of years, the struc- 
tures of the town are razed to the ground, and those of the city 
built upon the sites. 



-113- 




WILLIAM GILPIN. 
October 4, 1813-January 19, 1894. 



Gift to the Missouri Valley Historical Society from Mr. Jerome Smiley, 
Denver. 



-114— 



MAJOR WILLIAM GILPIN, THE PROPHET OF KANSAS CITY 

Chapter from forthcoming "History of Kansas City." 
By W. U WEBB. 

There graduated from West Point, toward the latter part of 
President Jackson's administration, a young man by the name of 
William Gilpin. He was even then animated by visions of the 
mystic West, where a varied career awaited him. Destiny had 
marked him for distinction as a soldier, politician, pathfinder and 
prophet. Major Gilpin was a strong mixture of the visionary and 
the man of practicability, being both a dreamer and man of action. 
His influence in developing the vast and unexplored wilderness 
west of the Mississippi River has not been understood nor appre- 
ciated by the American people. He was the supporter of Benton, 
the companion of Fremont, and the friend of Lincoln. His zeal for 
the west called out opposition speeches from Webster on two 
separate occasions. For more than 40 years he lived in the west 
and devoted all the energies of his scholarly mind to those vast 
problems of western commerce, which are now being solved, and 
which affect all the lands washed by the Pacific Ocean. 

The Gilpins came in pioneer days from England, where the 
family was an ancient and honorable one. Hubert H. Lancroft, in 
"Chronicles of Builders," says, in giving the lineage of the family, 
"For his devotion to Richard Coeur de Leon, whom in Austria, on 
retiring from his first crusade, King John would have caused to 
be murdered and for slaying a wild boar which infested the forests 
of Westmorland and Cumberland, the baron of Kendal in 1206, 
gave the manor of Kentmore to Richard Guylpyn, a substantial 
commoner, whose original came in with William the Conqueror." 
The Gilpin and Washington families were neighbors in England 
and a William Gilpin married Elizabeth Washington, ancestress of 
the first president of this countiy. 

The Gilpins were Quakers and they lived at the Old Brandy- 
wine battle field. At the time of the battle of Brandywine, the 
home of the Gilpins was the headquarters of Gen. Lafayette. Here 
was born our William Gilpin, the man who loved the great west 
and who foresaw and foretold the rise of Kansas City. He was born 
amid elegant and luxurious surroundings, in a home overlooking 
the Delaware, having in sight Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland 
and New Jersey. Andrew Jackson and many other prominent men 
were frequent visitors at the Gilpin home. William Gilpin was a 
favorite of "Old Hickory." 

At the age of 12 years William Gilpin was coached for six 
months by Hawthorne for admission to the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. Having graduated in due time, he was sent to England to 
finish his education, according to the custom pursued toward all 
the Gilpin children. An older brother was then consul at Belfast. 
Returning to America young William Gilpin found that his elderly 
friend, Andrew Jackson, had become president of the United States, 
and he easily secured the president's appointment of a cadetship to 
West Point, where he studied with Gen. Meade and Montgomery- 
Blair. 

Bancroft says of him at the time of his graduation : 

"He had been educated almost to death by the brightest in- 

—115— 



tellects of the world, and now he would try the merit of his own 
mind. For some time past he had read and thought much re- 
garding" the great unoccupied west, never losing an opportunity to 
converse with those familiar with the subject. Already military 
forces were on the frontier, stationed at various forts, at once 
to restrain and protect the Indians and prevent white men from 
illegally entering their territory. All this was thrilling romance 
to the young cadet. Some day he would go there, some day he 
would mingle with those scenes and would stir up events which, 
in their turn, should yet more stir up and help him on to high 
emprise." 

In 1836, the young cadet was sent to St. Louis with the com- 
mission of second lieutenant. He recruited among the Missouri- 
aps for the Florida war, in which he served for some time; was 
otherwise employed as an army officer in the west and south. 
After the election of Martin Van Buren to the presidency, he went 
to Washington, resigned his commission and returned to St. Louis, 
where he became editor of the Argus, the mission of which was 
at that time to re-elect Thomas Benton to the United States sen- 
ate. So ably did he conduct the Argus that Webster, never friendly 
to the west, was constrained to come to St. Louis and made a 
great speech in which he urged the voters of the state to get rid 
of Benton. This was in 1838. Benton, guardian of the west, 
and Gilpin's patron saint, was returned to the senate. The leg- 
islature of 1840 elected Benton's friend, Gilpin, chief clerk of the 
lower house at the time Sterling Price was chosen speaker. 

The next year, namely 1841, the restless young Gilpin pushed 
further to the west and established himself at Independence, Mo., 
then on the outer rim of civilization. For twenty years his home 
was nominally at Independence. During this period he practiced 
law, edited a newspaper, ran for congress, penetrated the west 
to Oregon with Fremont, fought in the Mexican war and evolved 
an astonishing theory by which he predicted the rise of a great 
city near Independence. He made charts and maps of the world 
on which he located the great cities of ancient and modern times 
within a belt bounded by thermal lines. He thus arrived at the 
conclusion that the great central city of this continent would in- 
evitably be situated within ten miles of Independence, while an- 
other great city would be at Denver and another at Portland, 
Oregon. 

The account of his trip across the wilderness from Independ- 
ence reads like a romance. His fortune had been dissipated. He 
borrowed $100 from his friend, David Waldo, purchased a pack 
mule, then mounted his fine saddle horse and set out alone. He 
soon fell in with Fremont and they made the trip together. 

Upon his return, Gilpin went on to Washington to urge the 
establishment of a mail route from Independence to the mouth 
of the Columbia river. Arriving in Washington, he called upon 
Secretary of State Buchanan, whom he knew. Mr. Buchanan 
listened with the deepest interest to all his visitor had to say. 
He then said to Gilpin: "You must come with me instantly to 
the president and give him word for word, -as near as you can, 
all you have told me." President Polk was deeply interested in 

—116— 



Gilpin, whom Mr. Buchanan introduced as "The greatest traveler 
in the world." It was Polk's policy, as it was Benton's, to push 
on to the Pacific. Gilpin appeared before the committee on postal 
roads and urged his mail route. He spoke fervently of our com- 
mercial supremacy on the western ocean and of our relations to 
Japan and China. He pointed out the need of a railroad to the 
Pacific and of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The mem- 
bers of the committee were astonished. A favorable report was 
made to congress and a bill was introduced. This bill called forth 
from Webster one of his most eloquent flights of oratory. He 
was opposed to Benton, and to all of Benton's Western ideas. He 
was opposed to Gilpin's mail route ideas. He said, on the floor 
of the senate, in fighting the bill, "What do we want with this 
vast worthless area? This region of savages and wild beasts, of 
deserts, of shifting sand and whirlwinds of dust, of cactus and 
prairie dogs ? To what use could we ever hope to put these great 
deserts, or these endless mountain ranges, impenetrable and cov- 
ered to their very base with eternal snow? What can we ever 
hope to do with the Western coast, a coast of 3,000 miles, rock- 
bound, cheerless, uninviting and not a harbor on it? What use 
have we for such a country? Mr. President, I will never vote one 
cent from the public treasury to place the Pacific coast one inch 
nearer Boston than it is now." 

This was the second speech elicited from Webster by Gilpin. 

The war with Mexico broke out about this time, and Lieu- 
tenant Gilpin came home to engage in it. He was elected major 
in Colonel Doniphan's regiment, and he became its drillmaster and 
disciplinarian. Major Gilpin has received scant praise for his 
services with Doniphan. 

After the war Major Gilpin returned to Independence more 
convinced than before his travels that his theory as to great cities 
was scientifically correct. He organized a company and purchased 
a large body of land north of Independence and on this it was pro- 
posed to found the great central city. He gave a great barbecue, 
and excitement ran high. The city of Independence extended her 
limits to the Missouri River, and the citizens macadamized the 
street running out to "Centropolis," popularly known as Gilpin 
Town. Major Gilpin went on to Washington and New York to 
put his town lots on the market. In his absence the company went 
to pieces, and in 1850 its affairs were wound up in court at 
Liberty. 

At the election of 1861 he voted for Lincoln, his vote being 
the only one so cast in Jackson County, according to his claim. 

Major Gilpin was chosen as one of the body guard to the new 
President at the time of Lincoln's inauguration. Before leaving 
Washington City, he was appointed Governor of Colorado. After 

—117— 



his term of office he engaged in mining and at the time of his 
death was reputed to be wealthy. 

It would take a volume to give the life and works of this truly- 
great man. In 1873 he published a book entitled "The Mission 
of the North American People, Geographical and Political Delineat- 
ing the Physical Architecture and Thermal Laws of All Conti- 
nents." The book is rich in facts, and the facts are presented in 
glowing language. His whole theory may be grasped in one of 
his sentences: "History is the journal of geographical progress." 
He possessed a fervid imagination, and was an impressive orator. 
An extract from an oration delivered in 1849 at Independence on 
the Pacific railway will give an idea of the vigor and loftiness of 
his diction: "This occupation of wild territory, accumulating out- 
ward like the annual rings of our forest trees, proceeds with all 
the solemnity of a providential ordinance. It is at this moment 
sweeping onward to the Pacific with accelerated activity and 
force, like a deluge of men rising unabated, and daily pushed on- 
ward by the hand of God." 

The growth of Kansas City was a matter of great pride to 
Major Gilpin as long as he lived. When that city was surveyed, 
in 1851, he urged that the limits be extended to take in both West- 
port and Independence. He died firm in the belief that the great 
central city would reach the bounds prescribed by him. 



—118— 



SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE WYANDOTTES. 

By LILIAN WALKER HALE, read before the Historical Society. May. 1916, grand- 
niece of William Walker. Governor of Nebraska Territory. 

I feel that I am here under false pretenses, having been asked 
to talk about the Wyandotte Indians from my recollection or ex- 
perience with them. As a matter of fact, I have had very little 
actual experience with the Wyandottes. My father died in 1860, 
when I was a very small child, the war obliterated almost every- 
thing else — previous to that was the border troubles; I was born 
and brought up in an atmosphere of conflict ; everyday things were 
put in the background, and to my knowledge never came forward. 
Everything I know of the Wyandottes is largely hearsay and the 
experience of others. I have some few incidents in mind, very 
fragmentary recollections, just a few things I can remember. 

I think of the clans or tribes as they were called — I believe 
the designation as clans is rather an influence from Scotland and 
is therefore European. Tribe is the word we used, not clan — the 
Deer Tribe, Bear Tribe, Turtle Tribe, each tribe within the Nation, 
the Wyandotte Nation, which common usage has reduced to Wyan- 
dotte Tribe. Around their council fire the Deer, Bear, Porcupine 
and Beaver Ti^ibes sat on one side ; the Wolf Tribe at the end ; the 
Big Turtle, Mud Turtle, Prairie Turtle and Hawk Tribes on the 
opposite side of the council fire. The Deer Tribe was at the head 
of all the tribes ; the Wyandottes at the head of all nations — they 
were the keepers of the council fire. The last time the council fire 
was lit was in 1848, the council was called by the Wyandottes 
(think the Kickapoos and Osages met with them) ; they consulted 
as to what they should do, they foresaw the invasion of the white 
people, although the government had promised the Indians beyond 
the Missouri never should be disturbed. They met to consult and 
consider what to do ; out of that grew the political situation which 
resulted in Governor Walker being made provincial governor of 
Nebraska; from that the Kansas-Missouri border agitation, the 
Civil War had its remotest beginning when our tribes met around 
the council fire to see what to do. All this is history, not personal 
recollection. 

My recollections seem to begin with the church, the little 
frame church which stood at that time immediately northwest of 
Huron Cemetery itself, only a fence divided them. The first min- 
ister I remember at our church was Father Barnard, Daddy 
Barnard, as we called him. To this church the Wyandotte women 
used to come with their black silk handkerchiefs on their heads, 
and their pretty shawls ; some came dressed in the latest styles of 
the sixties. The sermons I don't remember. Another minister I 
remember was H. H. Craig. He kept school in the church, the 
Wyandotte young people went there. My older brothers and sis- 
ters went ; I was too young. Rev. Dr. Scarritt used to preach very 
often in that church ; he was over there much of the time, an inti- 
mate friend and visitor — married us, buried us, baptised us. I 
remember so many visitors used to come to our house. Mother 
would send the carriage for them and they would come and spend 
the day, as the custom was. Many came and went whose names I 
do not remember, but there were the Armstrong girls, the Mud- 
eater girls, the Driver girls, etc. 

—119— 



I have a vivid recollection of the Corn Feast, 15th of August 
— sort of a harvest home festival. All gathered in the woods and 
had soup made of meat and corn — don't remember what else, 
cooked without salt — they passed the salt in their hands and each 
one did his own seasoning. The first feast I remember I was very 
small. There I received my Wyandotte name. I can't tell what 
it was because I do not know. Mother had a list of our names and 
their meaning, but it got lost in some way. My brother's name 
meant "Bear Cub." I do not belong to the Big Turtle Tribe, as 
was announced — the children belong to the tribe of the mother. 
My mother was not an Indian, she was a Yankee from Rhode 
Island. When a Wyandotte married a white person, that white 
person was adopted into some tribe; husband and wife do not be- 
long to same tribe. My father was a Big Turtle, my mother was a 
Bear — all her children were Bears. I can remember very little of 
the ceremony of being named. Uncle Jim Grey Eyes led me up to 
the oldest woman of the Bear Tribe, she placed her hand on my 
head and with certain ceremonies gave me my Indian name. I am 
proud of it, but I cannot tell you what it is, or what it means. 
Do not know of any record kept of it in the tribal record of the 
church. I know what my cousin's name meant — "Left Behind." 

I remember the second feast. We all loaded up in wagons 
and on horseback and went seven or eight miles to the feast. Quite 
a number of white citizens attended and we had a great deal of 
fun. The idea that the Indian has no sense of humor, that he is 
hewn out of a block of wood, that nothing stirs him to laughter, 
is a mistake — they have a keen sense of humor. A young white 
man attended this feast. He was very much interested and thought 
he would like to have an Indian name. So they said they would 
give him one, and they did, and he was very proud and went about 
saying it. Finally he asked what his name meant and was in- 
formed it meant "polecat." They, however, gave him another 
Indian name — that was merely a joke. The polecat or skunk was 
supposed to be able in a medical sense to cure smallpox. All ani- 
mals associated very intimately with the Wyandottes. Then there 
was the dance and the refreshments. In the dance, they formed 
in a circle, danced around to chant and tomtom. One man had 
deer hoofs on a string around his leg, which made additional clat- 
ter; think they had some kind of pipe, not sure, but remember 
drum and deer hoofs. When they reached a certain point, gave a 
shout and the women danced around outside of the men. After 
dance, they gathered up their families and went home. That was 
the last feast ever held in Wyandotte County; in that year (1868) 
they emigrated to Oklahoma where they now are. They do not 
have feasts now because they have been so exploited by the white 
people. 

So far as the language goes, my father did not allow his wife 
or any of the children to speak the language; do not know why, 
except visitors were so numerous, and servants hard to get, and 
with a family of small children, presume father thought if it was 
understood we did not know the language, they would not be en- 
couraged to come and make such long visits. I regret that I am 
not able to speak the language. 

—120— 



I feel as though I was appearing somewhat under a fraudulent 
title, because there was so little Indian in our family, excepting 
that we have always been under the kind protection of the De- 
partment of the Interior. If we sell any land, we have to consult 
the Department of the Interior, and sign a paper saying we have 
no bad habits, do not drink, able to attend to our own affairs — 
signs, and seals and seals, all very formal. The last land is in 
Montana, the Absentee Wyandotte Land. I am very familiar with 
the workings of the Department of the Interior, or with its "not 
workings" — it takes a long time to put anything into the Depart- 
ment and get it out again. However, they treat us more or less 
well. 

(Mrs. Hale then gave the Wyandotte version of the Creation, 
as given in books telling their folk tales and traditions.) 

The starting of Kansas City was by the Wyandottes — not that 
they settled here, but they spent their money here, their large pay- 
ments from the government kept up business around the levee for 
many years. A few of the Wyandottes lived here a short time 
until they could get the land cleared and houses built. Mother 
said it was an impenetrable forest when the Wyandottes came. 

Mother used to sing Wyandotte hymns at the church. She 
used to sing Wyandotte Lullaby to my daughter. It was beautiful, 
but I couldn't understand it. 

Every once in a while you hear something about Indian Chief. 
We are all daughters of different chiefs. The chief was an elec- 
tive office, not a royal line, the chief was elected in council like 
we would elect a mayor or any other officer. It is no great glory 
to be called the descendant of any chief, that was like it is today — 
he who got votes enough could be chief. 



—121— 




JACKSON COUNTY'S FIRST COURTHOUSE. 
BUILT IN 1827. 

Ninety-three years ago the first pubhc building of Jackson 
County was built of logs at Independence. This was the first 
courthouse. When the county was created in 1827, there was no 
settlement of any importance, within her boundaries, that could be 
used as a nucleus for a county seat. Thus, a high piece of ground, 
in the wooded portion of the county was chosen for the seat of her 
government ; a few blocks of ground in the vicinity of what is now 

the "public square," and the spot named "Independence." 

Fort Osage had been abandoned by the government in 1825, 
leaving a few settlers near its site. This was Old Sibley; a year 
later a flood wiped out the homes of those who had settled in the 
east bottoms. So, hope centered about the new county seat, as the 
coming great city on the west border. 

The members of the county court had found it irksome to pay 
rent. And when a bill of two dollars for the use of a room for 
two days' court was presented for payment, it was detennined to 
build a temporary house of justice. This first house was not in- 
tended for permanent use. The court had greater plans for the 
county than to have its judicial decisions set forth in a one-story 
log cabin. 

In 1827, Lilburn W. Boggs (first), clerk of the county court, 
governor of Missouri, 1836-42, was ordered to arrange for its 
erection. The order provided that the building be of logs, with 
stone foundation, and a brick chimney at either end, that the two 
rooms of the building might be properly heated. 

The contract was let to Daniel P. Lewis, lowest bidder, for 
$150.00. In order that nothing should be lacking an appropriation 
of $175.00 was made to cover the cost of the building. Lewis be- 
gan work in the fall of 1827, completing the house by the following 
February.^ 

The first judges to preside within its walls were Abraham 
McClellan, Richard Fristoe and Henry Burris. It stood a block 
east of the square, on the corner east of Lexington and Lynn. 
Quaint old houses stand on Lynn Street. That is a narrow and 

lit was scarcely finished before the County Court approved plans for a per- 
manent courthouse at a cost of $1,500.00. 

—122— 



quiet lane today. The old building passed from one owner to 
another until about the time of the Civil War, when it passed into 
the hands of Preston Roberts, who used it as a residence. Where 
the Roberts family lived, there fashion was. Lynn Street was 
then very gay. Beautiful women with gallants in frock coats and 
bright colored trousers strolled past its green lawns. 

There were several attempts in the past to reclaim the build- 
ing from private ownership. At one time it was about to be re- 
moved to Kansas City and placed in Swope Park. But, Independ- 
ence prevented this. It was not until 1916, however, that a move 
towards its rehabilitation was made. In 1920 the county court ap- 
propriated $500.00 for this purpose. And the citizens of the town 
under the auspices of the Community Welfare League of that place 
have completed the task. The building, today, forms the head- 
quarters of the League, where it dispenses public assistance. Hav- 
ing lived through the greater part of one century, the old struc- 
ture is reaching into the adolescence of another. 

Today, shorn of the ugly additions it gained through various 
private ownerships, it stands on a permanent foundation, remod- 
eled; the most historic and most beautiful monument within the 
limits ef that interesting old town. 

MATTHEW PAXTON. 




INDEPENDENCE SQUARE— 1850. 



—123— 



GENEALOGY OF THE GAMBLE FAMILY. 

In the latter part of the Seventeenth Century, two brothers of 
the name of Gamble emigrated from Northumberland County,- Eng- 
land, to Ireland. From one of these brothers was descended 
JOSEPH GAMBLE (1) who married Miss Montgomery. He lived 
in the County Derry, Ireland, and emigrated to America about the 
year 1752. His family, which he brought with him, consisted of 
his wife, his daughter Margaret (2) and his son Archibald (2). 
After two years' residence in the Colony of Pennsylvania, he be- 
came dissatisfied and returned to Ireland, leaving his daughter 
Margaret with relatives of her mother. After their return to Ire- 
land they had two children born to them, Joseph (2) and Eleanor 
(2). At the age of 17 Archibald (2), the elder son, again em- 
barked for America. His aim was to obtain an education, for 
which this country afforded greater facilities than Ireland at that 
time, and this object, by industry and application, he fully accom- 
plished. He became professor of Latin and Greek at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. He served in the Revolutionary War, 
and was engineer at the siege of Charlestown, S. C. He married 
Mary Lisle, a daughter of John Lisle of Philadelphia. He died in 
1784, leaving four children: Thomas (3), Archibald (3), Sarah 
(3), and Nancy (3). For many years Thomas (3) was consul at 
the Isle of St. Thomas. Archibald (3) served as an officer in the 
war of 1812, Sarah (3) married the Rev. Cummings of Orange 
County, New York, and left several children ; Nancy married twice 
but left no children. 

JOSEPH GAMBLE (2), son of Joseph (1), and (— Mont- 
gomery) Gamble, was bom in County Derry, Ireland, May 20, 
1755; he married Ann Hamilton, daughter of John Hamilton, "of 
the Strath," and Mary Carr. She was bom May 20, 1760. In 
1784, three years after their marriage, they embarked for the 
United States. Their first settlement was at Newcastle, Delaware, 
but they permanently settled at Winchester, Virginia, in 1786. 
Their children were: 

John (3), born Dec. 8, 1785; Eliza (3), bom April 13, 1788; Joseph (3), 
bom Jan. 4, 1790; James (3), born Dec. 28, 1792; Archibald (3), bom Jan. 14, 
1794; William Hamilton (3), died young; Hamilton Rowan (3), born Nov. 29, 
1798. John married a daughter of John Lynn of Tennessee; they had two sons, 
Joseph (4), and Carl (4), and one daughter, Annie (4) married a Presbyterian 
clergyman of Tennessee. Eliza (3) married Captain Samuel Baker of Frederic 
Co., Virginia, and had five children: 

i. James Baker (4), of Frederick Co., Va.; m. a daughter of Joseph 
Glass. 

ii. Joseph Baker (4), of Wheeling, West Va.; m. Joseph Moseby. 

iii. Annie Baker (4), m. William Lloyd Logan, of Winchester, Va. 

iv. Eliza (4), m. David Pitman, of St. Charles, Missouri. 

V. Mary Baker (4), m. Benjamin Alderson, of St. Charles, Missouri. 

James (3), son of Joseph and Ann (Hamilton) Gamble, married Eliza, 
daughter of Philip Williams, of Hardy Co., Virginia, who was clerk of the 
court in that County; they had a numerous family. 

Archibald (3), son of Joseph and Ann (Hamilton) Gamble, married Louise 
B. Easton, daughter of Col. Rufus Easton; they had eight children. 

Hamilton Rowan (3), son of Joseph and Ann (Hamilton) 
Gamble, married Caroline Lane Coalter, daughter of David and 
Ann (Carmichael) Coalter in South Carolina. The Coalter family 
were from Rockbridge County, Virginia. There were nine children 
born to Hamilton Rowan and Caroline Lane (Coalter) Gamble, six 

—124— 



of whom died young, the three others : 

i. Hamilton (4), b. Nov. 11, 1837; d. April 11, 1877, in Salt Lake City, 
Utah; m. Sarah Goode Minor, daughter of James Lawrence and 
Sarah Cornelia (Goode) Minor. 

ii. Dr. David Coalter (4), b. 1844; died , in St. Louis, Mo.; m. 

Flora Matthews, 
iii. Mary Coalter (4), b. 1842: m. Edgar Miller, of St. Louis; he d. 1905. 

Hamilton Gamble (4), son of Hamilton Rowan and Caroline 
Lane (Coalter) Gamble was a distinguished member of the bar in 
Jefferson City and St. Louis, Missouri, and in Salt Lake City, Utah. 
He died in Salt Lake City April 11, 1877, and is buried in Belfoun- 
taine Cemetery at St. Louis in the lot with his father, Governor 
Hamilton Rowan Gamble. Children of Hamilton and Sarah Goode 
(Minor) Gamble: 

i. Caroline Coalter Gamble, m. Burnett N. Simpson, of Kansas City, 
ii. Mary Minor Gamble, m. Charles Lyon Simpson, of Kansas City. 
iii. Hamilton Gamble, m. 1st Latrobe Carroll, of Washington, D. C; after 
his death she m. 2d, Thomas Williamson (an Englishman), of 
Cairo, Egypt, and lived for a time in that city; after his death 
she came to New York and resides there, as does her only child, 
Latrobe Carroll. 
The children of Mary Gamble Simpson are: 
i. Dorothea (6), m. Gilmer Meriwether, 
ii. Hamilton (6) 
Children of Dr. David and Flora (Mathews) Gamble: 
i. Leonore (5), died young. 

ii. Minnie (5), iii. Hamilton, iv. John, v. May, vi. Clarence, vii. Maud, 
viii. David, ix. Guy, x. Edna, xi. Ethel, xii. Allan. 
Children of Mary Coalter (Gamble) and Edgar Miller: 
i. Caroline Coalter (5). 

ii. Susan Earl (5), m. Matthew Woods, of St. Louis, Mo. 
iii. Edith Miller (5). 
iv. Constance Hamilton (5), m. Greer, of St. Louis. 

MARGARET (2), the daughter of Joseph and (Montgomery) 

Gamble, married John Allen and settled in Kentucky. 

ELEANOR (2), the youngest daughter, married John Anderson of Vir- 
ginia. 

COALTER : 
David and Ann (Carmichael) Coalter had a daughter, Julia 
Davenport Coalter, who married Judge Edward Bates of St. Louis 
and they had eight children, one of whom, Lieutenant-General 
John C. Bates, was a striking figure in the annals of the American 
army. Judge Edward Bates was President Lincoln's first Attor- 
ney-General. Frederick Bates, brother of Judge Edward Bates, 
second governor of Missouri in 1824-25, was of old English and 
American ancestry, of Quaker family. But that is for future 
reference. 

GAMBLE: 

The Gamble brothers, Hamilton Rowan and Archibald, were distinguished 
for character and ability, and upon the first fell the burden of state in those 
"times that tried men's souls," in the early part of the civil war. Governor 
Gamble's education was chiefly obtained at Hampden-Sidney College, and he 
was admitted to practice when he was but eighteen years of age; before he 
was twenty-one he had been licensed as a lawyer in three states, Virginia, 
Tennessee and Missouri, arriving in Missouri in 1818. Some time previously 
his brother, Archibald, a well trained and successful young lawyer, had located 
in St. Louis, was then clerk of the Circuit Court, and appointed Hamilton 
Rowan as his deputy. At this time the entire territory north of the Missouri 
River was divided into two counties, Howard and St. Charles, and Gamble 
soon removed to Old Franklin, the chief towTi of the former, where he was 

_125— 



appointed prosecuting attorney for the circuit. In 1824 he was appointed by 
Governor Frederick Bates Secretary of State, and removed to St. Charles, the 
temporary seat of government. After the death of Governor Bates, which 
occurred soon after he settled in St. Louis. In 1846 he was sent to the Legis- 
lature to assist in revising laws. Five years later (in 1851) a place was vacant 
on the Supreme Bench of the State and Hamilton R. Gamble, though belong- 
ing to the Whig party, was elected, and his associates on the Ijench chose him 
as presiding judge. Ill health led to his resignation in 1855. About 1858 
Hamilton R. Gamble removed to Philadelphia and was there when the war 
clouds began to gather. Judge Gamble hastened home, addressed a meeting 
of the citizens at the court house the very next evening after his arrival, and 
proclaimed his unswei^ving fidelity to the Union. When the convention met 
later the Unionists had a majority. Judge Gamble took a prominent part in 
the deliberations and was unanimously chosen provisional Governor. This was 
in July, 1861. He shrank from the difficult task, and accepted it only when 
convinced that it was his duty. It is sufficient to say that Governor Gamble 
won a fitting place in the list of "War Governors." 

ARCHIBALD GAMBLE came to St. Louis in 1816. He was a lawyer; 
served for a year as clerk of the St. Louis Bank, then as deputy clerk under 
Marie P. Leduc in Judge David Barton's court. Governor William Clark ap- 
pointed him clerk of Circuit Court and ex-officio recorder of deeds of St. 
Louis County, an office he held for eighteen years, when J. F. Ruland suc- 
ceeded him. He was long the efficient and active legal agent of the public 
schools. When Lafayette visited St. Louis in 1825, he was one of the alder- 
men, and aided in his reception. In 1836 he was a leading spirit in railroad 
building movement. At one time he had charge of the St. Louis postoffice, 
and was secretary of the Barton Convention in June, 1831. During the last 
twenty years of his life, which closed in September, 1866, he lived in com- 
parative quiet, possessing abundant means. Like his brother, he was a strict 
and worthy member of the Presbyterian Church. When in the full vigor of 
his manhood no person was more closely identified with business enterprises 
and the growth of the community." 

(Extract from History of St. Louis City and County by J. Tliomas Scharf.) 

MARTHA HUMPHREYS MALTBY (Mrs. A, N.) 

4130 Walnut St. 



-126— 



THE BIRTHDAY OF MISSOURI. 

Written in honor of Missouri's Birthday Centennial July 11, 1921 By Mabelle 
Brown Webb (Mrs. W. L. Webb). Poet Laureate Missouri D. A. R, and of the 
State Division U. D. C. 

Her natal day ! Missouri's ! 

Pride of the golden west ! 
Oh wreathe her a crown of garlands 

From the gardens she loves best, 
Fan the fires upon her altars 

Incense swing from censers gold 
For Missouri's Age, oh daughters. 

She's just a centuiy old. 

Oh sing her a song of triumph ! 

And bind her flowing hair ! 
Place jewels upon her bosom 

And gems on her arms so fair. 
Those arms whose brawny sinews 

Un-atrophied by time, 
Wrought for herself and people 

With a genius all sublime. 

And count your beads before her — 

A rosary, the strand — 
Each bead, recounts a story 

Of the marvels of her hand. 
Each marks momentous issue 

Of her prowess and her might ; 
Each tells a tale of wonder, 

If you read the tale aright. 

Oh wake the harp, unto her, 

And sound the psaltery. 
A nation's praise is due her. 

But greater she's yet to be! 
Though old, she is young in state-hood; 

Yet with Vision, wondrous wise. 
Proud her Advent in the" Union," 

And her glorious "Compromise!" 

Great the men who made her greatness, 

The Giants of her day! 
Her own proud soul produced them 

"Sons of Missouri's clay" — 
Great the noble band of women. 

Evolved from her finer mold; 
Lo, a "health" to our mighty mother, 

Now just a century old. 



-127— 



She has filled our hearts with gladness 

And our coffers — through the years — 
And has brought us shine, for shadow, 

She has brought us smiles, for tears, 
She has fed us from the bounty 

Of her fields of wheat, and corn, 
Fought our wars. We bless- her advent. 

Hail with pride, her natal morn. 

Oh deck her throne with blossoms 

And raise the banner, too ; 
The flag — her own! — Missouri's! 

And the old "RED, WHITE AND BLUE. 
And spread the feast around her. 

Her birthday cake, before. 
Lighted with an hundred candles, 

Emblem of her years, five score. 

Assemble! ye sons and daughters. 

Pay homage to her, our state. 
Of all the glorious union, 

Superlatively great! 
Review her history's pages. 

Symbolically told, 
For this is Missouri's birthday. 

She's just a century old. 



■128— 



PROGRAM 
Kansas City Centennial Association 

MISSOURI DAY 



OCTOBER THIRD 

1821 —The Gate\^ay— 

Written and Directed 

—by- 
Florence Magill Wallace. 



1921 




"THE SCOUT," Penn Valley Park. 



COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN 
Mrs. J. B. White, county chairman and souvenir program; Mi's. J. Milton 
Freeland, cast; Mrs. Jack Riley, Dr. E. M. Hiner, music; Mrs. Dorothy Perkins, 
dances; Mrs. Fred Huttig, invitations; Mrs. Arthur L. Williams, boxes; Mrs. 
Arthur E. Taylor, pageant program; Mrs. Wm. P. Borland, costumes; Mrs. Ada 
G. MacLaughlin, posters; Mrs. W. Bertram Satterlee, publicity; Louis Mahler, 
old-fashioned dances; Miss Marie Kelley, ballet; Miss Effie Sechrest, Haskell 
students; J. Milton Freeland, rough riders; Miss M. Albaugh, relics; Mrs. 
Hollen E. Day, flags. 

Hiner's Band 



1821— THE GATEWAY— 1921 
A processional Pageant and Masque, given under the Auspices 
of the Kansas City Centennial Association in the honor of the 
One Hundredth Anniversary of the State of Missouri, Penn Val- 
ley Park, Oct. 3d, Missouri Day. The Centennial Ball at Conven- 
tion Hall at 8:30 P. M., with the programme of songs, dances, 
modes and manners of the Century 1821-1921. 

Order of Ceremonies for the Celebration. 
1 :30 P. M. — Processional Historical Parade. 

3 :00 P. M.— Assembly and Speakers at Park. 

4 :00 P. M.— Historical Masque, "The Gateway." 
8:30 P. M.— Centennial Ball— Convention Hail. 

Col. Ruby D. Garrett Parade Director 

Florence M. Wallace Pageant Director 

E. M. Hiner... ...._ Music Director 

Mrs. P'rederick Huttig Chairman of Ball 

Kansas City Centennial Association 
OFFICERS 
MRS. CHARLES CHANNING ALLEN, Chairman. 
MR. J. C. NICHOLS, 1st Vice-Chairman. 
MRS. J. B. WHITE, 2nd Vice-Chairman. 

MRS. ADA G. MacLAUGHLIN, 1019 East Armour Blvd., Secretary. 
MR. H. B. LEAVENS, 301 Fidelity Trust Co., Bldg., Treasurer. 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

Mr. E. M. Clendenning, Mr. Maurice J. McNeills, 

Mr. W. B. Davis, Mr. J. A. Harzfeld, 

Mrs. Nettie T. Grove, Mr. Leo F. Crabbs, 

Mr. Franklyn Hudson 

PROLOGUE. 

Thomas Hart Benton .., Judge William E. Wallace 

{Pages enter ivith large book.) 

"Ye who would learn the glory of your past, 
And form a forecast of the things to he, 
Give heed to this, a city's trumpet blast, 
And see her pictured life in pageantry." 
The book of writing now unfolds; give ear and listen to the 
story of a State. A story of a maiden most surpassing fair. 

Miss Ouri, a daughter of the winds, the namesake of her 
uncle, the Chief, Big Muddy, and closely related to the famous 
Mrs. Sipfy. (Turns and gazes at the jncture before him.) 

Do my eyes deceive me, or am I only dreaming? Have I at 
last reached the land of the sky blue waters, the abiding place of 
Nature herself? Is it a vision, or is this sacred spot peopled with 
the spirits of grace and beauty? 

My good guide told me that when I reached the Gateway, 

where Truth abides, that the puzzling questions which remain 

unanswered would be made plain, that the invisible would be made 

visible. (Truth approaches.) And are you Truth, the real Truth? 

Truth : Nay, I am but Simple Truth. 

Prologist: Can you tell me where I am? 

—130— 



Truth : Yes, this is the island of Just Pretend, 
It is full of surprises and joys, 
It isn't intended for practical folk, 
But for those who are still girls and boys, 
Mother Nature greets you on this happy isle. 
And the butterflies, fairies and flowers. 
They bring you a message, a message of love ; 
Rest here, you will soon feel her powers. 

{E7iter Mothei' Nature, with fairies, butterflies and flowers. 
She ivalks to the throne, and ivhen seated, the strains of Lieber- 
straum are wafted up on the air. Enter first her seven laivs, LoVE, 
Truth, Harmony and Rhythm {the tivins), Wisdom, Law and 
Common Sense. Then come the Blue Birds, the Roses, Violets, 
Buttercups and Wind Flotuers, followed by a huge group of Forest 
Children in their robes of green and gold, orange and brown. They 
are joined by the Earth Children, Lead, Zinc, Iron and Coal. 
All of these children join in the play and finally fall exhausted at 
the feet of their Mother.) 

Mother Nature : 

Mine is the power of right inherent. 

Behold them, they who dwell in my bosom. 

Beasts of the fields and forests who wear the glossy furs. 

Who build in my rocks and valleys and play in the morn- 
ing, like light on the leaves. 

Mine is the secret of life recurrent, of life abundant, free; 

For behold my flowers and vines, and the fruit of the 
branches. 

Behold my little birds that sing day after day, 

And the seven laws, my eldest children, Love, Truth, Wis- 
dom, Law, Harmony and Rhythm, 

And my youngest son, whom I have named Common 
Sense, 

All — all these do I shelter and nourish alway. 

(Sings "Nature's Lullaby") 

Come, my children, make ready, for fair Miss OURI comes 
this way. Come my energies, my good impulses, my magnetic 
forces, I would renew the spirit within me. Fill us with joy 
and gratitude. Bring us new hopes and aspirations for the 
fair Miss Ouri comes this way. Help us make her pathway 
easy, joyful and prosperous. 

Dances of the Wind — "A la Bien Ami" — (Solo dance — "Spring 
Song"). 

Dances of the Fire — "Ride of the Valkyries." 
Dances of the Water — "Waltz of the Flowers" — (Interlude — 
"To Spring"). 

(Entrance of Miss OuRi, with attendants. President Monroe, 
and the tiventy-three States.) 

Grain Ballet— ("Waltz from Sylvia"). 
Mother Nature: 

What shall we give to this maiden so fair? 

See, she stands innocent before you. 

—131— 



Children : 

We give our all, we give our all. 

(President Monroe approaches, the pages carrying the Mis- 
souri flag and robes of state, as the leaders of the dance groups 
give the entivining scarf dance. At the finale of this dance, the fair 
debutante is crowned.) 

President Monroe: I crown thee, Missouri, the twenty- 
fourth State of the Union. 

(Exit march — ''Hymn to Missouri.") 

INTERMISSION. 
Prologist : 

"In this broad earth of ours, amid the measureless gross- 

ness and slag. 
Enclosed and sate within its central heart 
Nestles the seed, perfection. 
By every life a share or more or less. 
None born but it is born concealed, or unconcealed the 
seed is waiting." 

— Whitman. 
And the book unfolds to the chapter, Brotherhood. Historical 
Interlude, 1800 to 1812— Legend of the Robin. 

This scene shows an epoch-marking event in the history of 
Missouri's gateway, Jackson County. According to Indian lore, 
the robin is a sign of the approaching white race. Some of the 
Indian children, with one of the scouts, discover a strange bird. 
Rushing to their elders they report that they have seen a robin. 
The Indians take this as a bad omen. It but confirms what Chief 
White Plume has been telling his men. The Indians run to the 
summit, and point to the South as three fur traders appear, 
Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark. 

A purchase is made from the Indians. Rich furs, bright cot- 
tons and tobacco are exchanged for the title to the land. As the 
fur traders depart through the gateway. White Plume and his 
braves give pathetic emphasis to the tragic fate of the Red race 
who must give up their homes and lands and make room for the 
more progressive White people. (Upon the lands received through 
this transaction, a number of French families settled in numbers 
and soon established a thriving village.) 

Episode 1 — The Indian Trails, 1882. The Kaws, Delawares, 
Otos and Shawnees, and many of the early French families, in- 
cluding the Francis', Guinotte, Turgeon and Lessert families at- 
tend the wedding of Nancy Francis and Cyprian Chouteau. The 
wedded pair are seen starting upon their wedding journey with 
the good wishes of the entire village. 

Prologist (Episode 1) : 

"Come, my brawny, tan-faced brothers, 
Follow well the path before you. 
Gird your weapons close about you, 
Arm yourselves with guns and pistols. 
Enter now the unknown country, 

—132— 



The rolling, swaying, verdant prairies. 

All your past you leave behind you, 

All your future lies before you. 

March, then, onward toward the sunset, 

Men and women of the Eastlands. 

O you young and elder children, 

O you mothers, wives, and sweethearts, 

Never must you be divided. 

In our ranks you move united, 

Pioneers, oh pioneers." 

— Whitman. 

The pioneers dismount, and are introduced to the audience. 
The missiotiary trails. The Indians and many of the pioneers 
accompany the priest^ Father DeSmet, tvho holds the first reli- 
gious ceremony at Shawnee. The rustic cross is planted and all 
kneel as the priest blesses the site of the first churcti. 

Episode 2 — 1846. The Doniphan Expedition. Silhouetted 
against the Western sky, a group oi horsemen is discovered, led by 
General Doniphan and Major Gilpin. The daughters and sons 
of Westport enter in this episode, led by Major William Gilpin. 
Music, "When You and I Were Young, Maggie." 

Prologist — The Prophecy — Thomas Hart Benton: 

"Here, where these rocky bluifs meet and turn aside the 
sweeping current of this mighty river; here, where the Mis- 
souri, after pursuing her southern course for nearly two thou- 
sand miles, turns eastward to meet the Mississippi, a great 
manufacturing and commercial community will congregate, 
and less than a generation will see a great city." 

Episode 3— The Santa Fe Trail. Kit Carson, the famous 
rider and scout of the Santa Fe Trail, leads a group of cowboys 
and frontiersmen, who give an exhibition of fancy riding, bucking 
bronchoes, the stage coach, driven by Buffalo Bill, with passen- 
gers, some of the oldest settlers in Kansas City, passes by. Kit 
Carson greets them all, and finally follows them through the 
Gateway. 

Prologist : 

"From imperfection's murldest cloud 
Darts always forth one ray of perfect light. 
One flash of Heaven's gloiy. 
To the mad babel-din, the deafening orgies, 
Soothing each lull a strain is heard, just heard, 
From some far shore the final chorus sounding, 
Only the good is universal." 
Interlude 2. Under the guise of brotherhood, Mephisto en- 
ters through the gateway. Beneath his voluminous cloak are his 
cohorts, Hatred, Jealousy, Greed, Graft, Intemperence, Crime 
and Fear. When this figure reaches center, the cloak is lifted and 
the evils released. Mother Nature enters and demands that the 
evils depart from this, her favorite haunt. They scatter in all 
directions and are hidden in the caves and bushes. {Music, tvild 
and inharmonious.) 

—133— 



Episode 4. The Builders of Kansas City. 

Prologist (Music, "Missouri Waltz") : 

"To every nation under the sun 1 bear this message to 

everyone, 
I hold it aloft that all may see, humanity will set us free 
Come, Mortals, Spirits, dairies. Elves, the fair Missouri 

waits. 
Let's bid her enter as she waits outside the iron gates." 
A procession, led by Colonel Kersey Coates, marches in 
parade irom the South to the North, carrying the banner, Kansas 
City, Missouri, 1889." 

Episode 5, A roundup and a cleanup. Two buglers from the 
American Legion and a tlag bearer rush into the center and a 
bugle call of alarm is sounded. This is responded to, first by the 
Fathers' Club and the Parent Teachers' Association. They are 
joined by the Boy Scouts, who appear over Scout Hill, and the 
defenders, the American Legion, Through the combined strength 
of these organizations, Evil and his cohorts are eliminated, 'i'he 
Boy Scouts then form the letters, K. C, Mo. 

To the music of the "Long, Long Trail," Missouri calls upon 
her seven prophets and throws over their shoulders her mantle, 
emblazoned with the coat of arms of Missouri. This forms the 
hub of the Wheel of Progress. Patriotic and civic societies enter 
from seven directions, singing as they march, and form the great 
wheel. During this spectacle, a pageant depicting the future of 
Missouri, passes in review. Modern Womanhood, Joan D'Arc, 
Opportunity, Education, and Pep, Ambition, Progress and Power, 
Faith and Confidence, and Victory. 

(As the music changes to "Onward, Christian, Soldiers," the 
Tiventy-four States form themselves into the cross. The marchers 
turn to the West and march through the Gateway. The American 
Legion and the Boy Scouts form an aisle on either side of the gate 
and stand at attention as a lone figure, the last old scout in 
America, rides slotvly into view over Scout Hill. At the call of 
"Taps," he takes the pose of the figure of the famous statue, "At 
the End of the Trail." He also passes through the Gateivay, as do 
the members of the defenders of Missouri, the American Legion 
and the Boy Scouts.) 

Invocation : 

"Give us, God, to sing this thought. 

Give me, give him or her I love this quenchless faith. 

In Thy ensemble, whatever else withheld, withhold not 

from us. 
Belief in plan of Thee enclosed in Time and Place, 
Health, Peace, Salvation Universal. 
Is it a dream? 

Nay, but the lack of it the dream, 
And failing it life's lore and wealth a dream. 
And all the world a dream." 

— Whitman. 



—134— 



PRINCIPALS IN CAST 
Thomas H. Benton judge William E. Wallace, Prologi.t 

^'^^ ^^^^ Mrs. J. Milton Freeland 

Mother Nature Mrs. Otto Grasse 

The Pages: 
Thomas McLaughlin and Henry McLaughlin 

^^'^^^'^ ^1'- Eugene Hudson Rhythm Mrs. Dorothy Perkins 

Love Mrs. Lester Glover Wisdom Junior Wright 

Harmony Miss Helen Gifford Common Sense.... Frederick Van Brunt 

Flame Miss Marguerite Lowe 

President Monroe. John T. Harding 

Mrs. Monroe Mrs. Charles Channing Allen 

Mephisto H. L. Cornell 

Greed Moulton Green Hatred W. T. Reynolds 

Jealousy Miss Virginia Robertson Intemperance Richard Wiles 

Graft Maurice Quincey Crime.. S. M. Meyer 

Fear Jay Richardson 

Father De Smet Rev. J. W. Keyes 

Kersey Coates Kersey Coates Reed 

General Doniphan Col. E. M. Stayton 

Liberty Mrs. Allen Porter 

Merriwether Lewis Raymond White 

William E. Clarke John Logan 

Daniel Boone jesse P. Crump 

Modern Womanhood Mrs. W. Bertram Satterlee 

Opportunity Miss Madeline Dickey 

Courage Mrs. George A. Barton 

Stability Mrs. Harvey Schmelzer 

Efficiency Mrs. Frank Paxton 

Strength Mrs. Francis McCord 

Hope Mrs. J. M. Walker 

Education and Pep 

Haskell Institute, Manual, Northeast, Central and Westport Athletic Depts. 

Progress Mrs. Peter Tiernay 

Power Lawrence Dickey 

Faith and Confidence Mrs. Taylor Abernathy 

Victory M^-s. Gus Welch 

Columbia Miss Virginia Cornwall 

'P^^CE Mrs. George Bliss 

Army Peter Tiernan, William Wellsy 

Navy Lieut. Hereford Ball, Dr. John N. Walker 

Diamond Dick Col. John A. Bogge, Surviving Cody Scout 

(The last scout in Ameinca) 

Attendants to Miss Ouri— Miss Alice Schmelzer, Miss' Constance Pres- 
cott, Miss Ann Margaret Hastings, Miss Katherine Dickey, Miss Mason Crit- 
tenden, Miss Annette McGee. 

—135— 



The Twenty-three States — Miss^ Thrysa Chambliss, Miss Elizabeth Mc- 
Nulty, Miss Mary Berry, Miss Eleanor Ball, Miss Jane Montgomery, Miss 
Eleanor Kizer, Miss Mary Brickman, Miss Dorothy Wagner, Miss Helen 
Lyman, Miss Price, Miss Dixon, Mrs. Frank E. Watkins, Kansas City; Miss 
Mary Robinson, Miss Mary Trueman, Grandview; Miss Thelma Thomas, Miss 
Jeanette Kiersted, Miss Dorothy Green, Miss Dell Dougherty, Liberty; Miss 
Allene Thompson, Miss Ruth Stewart, Lees Summit; Miss Florence Ellis, 
Miss Julia Sears, Dodson; Miss Sarah Bryant, Belton, Mo. 

INTERPRETIVE DANCES. 

The Wind — Carolyn Borders, Sylvia Badgely, Sophia Riley, Belle Af- 
feld, Mary Moore, Juanita Wheeler, Mary Klaveter, Catherine Carr, Rosel- 
len Parott, Berenice Rutherford, Irene Tate, Josephine Pratt. Miss Helen 
Gifford, soloist. 

The Water — Margaret Sayler, Maxine Cook, Winifred Morrison, Nelle 
Cottingham, Ruth Garcelon, Marie Ritter, Delores Shaner, Helen Beaman, Rose 
Deveney, Mildred Kelly, Rachel Allen, Esterka Davidson, Evelyn Anderson, 
Justine Quinn, Harriet Gerla, Abbott Parker. Mrs. Lester Glover, soloist. 

The Fire — Peggy Cornell, Peggy Wingfield, Jean Middaugh, Doris 
Gwynne, Mattie Inzerelli, Imogene Johnson, Gladys Campbell, Edith Schick- 
hardt. Miss Marguerite Lowe, soloist. 

Corn Ballet — Mildred Lyons, Margaret Shelley, Ruth Hurley, Dorothy 
Kirtley, Emma Kane, Alva Fedeli, Nell Palis, Lucille Leverich. 

Wheat Ballet — Rosemary Shelley, Janet Hulse, Helen Schmidt, Maxine 
Wooley, Dorothy Deveney, Alice Sonnenberg, Katherine Deveney, Eloise 
O'Byrne, Cleo Rock — Pupils of Marie Kelley, of the Cranston School of Music. 

MRS. THOMAS J. BEATTIE, CHAIRMAN. 
French Settlers at the AVeddins; of Cy-priaii Chouteau and IVaney Francis. 

The Bride Mrs. Carl Guinotte 

The Groom Mr. Fred Chouteau 

Bridesmaids 

The Ring Bearer. Jess Leland Chouteau, Jr. 

Guests: — (Descendents of) 

OLD FRENCH SETTLERS — Mrs. H. F. Mitchell, Mr. George Fise, Miss Aimee 
Fise. Miss Leafea Fise, Mrs. Roy Moulden, Mr. and Mrs. Jess Leland Chouteau, Jess Le- 
land, Jr., and AVilliam G. Chouteau, Mr. Auguste L. Chouteau, Mrs. Thomas J. Beattie, 
Mrs. Hugo Brecklein, Mrs. Fred C. Merry, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas G. Payne, Mr. and 
Mrs. Thomas Trudhomme Payne, Mr. and Mrs. Nelshion D. Payne, Mr. and Mrs. Frank 
A. Payne. Mr. and Mrs. Clarence A. Payne. Mr. Clarence Payne, Jr., Miss Eleanor 
Payne, Mr. David Payne, Mrs. Mary Mercier, Miss Marie Mercier, Mr. and Mrs. 
Clarence J. Mercier, Mr. and Mh-s. Vincent J. Mercier, Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Turgeon, 
Mr. Allen Turgeon, Mr. Alex. Turgeon, Mr. Louis Turgeon, Mr. Frank Turgeon, 
Miss Marie Turgeon, Miss Marguerite Turgeon, Mrs. Cyril Turgeon, Mr. James 
Turgeon. Mis.s Hilda Turgeon, Miss Ruth Turgeon, Miss Lillian Parroll. Miss 
Anna Vasquez, Mrs. May Thatcher, Miss Adrianne Tinker, Mrs. Emma Guinotte Clarke, 
Mrs. Edward P. Moriarty. 

MISS ELIZABETH BARTON, CHAIRMAN. 

NAMES OF PIONEERS— Mrs. Neil Smith, Mrs. William Bayse, Mrs. Boyd Har- 
wood, Mrs. Matilda Pitcher, Mrs. John H. Thompson, Mrs. Elmer Williams, Mrs. Nellie 
McGee Nelson, Mrs. Betsy Anderson, Miss Elizabeth Barton, MJiss Minnie Lyndall, 
Mrs. Hastings Richards, Mrs. E'nmia Moore, Mrs. Kerwin Kinnard, Miss Anna Vasquez, 
Mrs. Percy Houston, Mrs. Malcolm Calvin, Miss Margery James, Miss Myra Price, 
Mrs. E. E. Porterfield, Mrs. Jack Switzgable, Mrs. Estil LaForce, Mrs. C. T. McCoun, 
Mrs. John Dwyer, Mrs. Albert Ott, Mr. Walter B. Waddell (Lexington, Mo.>, Mrs. 
Nettie Groves, Mr. Henry Avis, Mrs. Edna Anderson, Col. John F. Richards, Miss 
Amelia Long, Mr. Daniel Moore, Mrs. Carl Guinotte, Mr. William Scarritt, Mrs. Nellie 
McCoy Harris, Mr. John D. Wornall, Dr. Stephen Ragan, Mr. Holly Jarboe, Mr. 
J. W. Turgeon, Mr. F^ank Henderson, Mr. James Rout, Mr. Callie Baliss. 



—136— 



by the First 
By J. F. Fitzgibbons. Presented 



GIFTS AND LOANS TO THE MISSOURI VALLEY 
HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 

A Clock — Brought to Westport in 1854 by Alexander Waskey. 
Wooden works; has been in continuous use. Presented by Miss 
Mollie Waskey. 

Photograph — Framed, of the "Junction" in 1872. Presented by John 
C. Bovard. 

Photograph— "The Junction" in 1886. Presented 
National Bank. 

Oil Painting— "The Junction," 1893. 
by Mr. Lawrence V. Rieger. 

Crayon— "The Junction" in 1847. Owned by the late Mrs. G. B. 
Wheeler, whose father, Elijah Jackson, owned the site. 

Minute Book — Of the old Christian Church at Independence. From 
Mr. O. C. Sheley. 

Crayon Portrait— Of Colonel John C. McCoy. From his daughter, 
Mrs. Juliette McCoy Bass. 

Thomas Jefferson — Piece of woolen goods used in making Jefferson 
a suit. From Mrs. Nellie McCoy Harris. 

Books — McKenzie's Colonial Families of the United States of America. 
Presented by John Barber White. 

Letter — Written by Colonel Thomas H. Swope in 1857. Presented by 
the Kansas City Star. 

Oil Painting— Of the late M. Dively. Said to be a "Bingham" por- 
trait. Gift of Mrs. M. Dively. 

Portrait — Of the late Dr. Joseph Madison Wood 
ter, Mrs. Anna Wood Harris, Evanston, 111. 

Book — From the Press of Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia, 1750. 
From the late Winthrop Frazier. 

Book — Campbell's Gazetteer (duplicate) of Missouri. Gift of Mrs. 
Lydia M. Wilson. ^ 

£2ngraTing — Of Eugene Field (Signed). Presented by Leander J. Tal- 
bot. 

Portrait— Of the late Washington Henry Chick (1827-1918), who came 
to Jackson County with his father, the late Colonel W. M. Chick, 
in 1836. Gift of his son, Henry Chick. 

Photograph— Of C. C. Spalding, author of "The Annals of the City 
of Kansas and the Great Western Plains" (1858). This is the 
first history of this City. Its author was a graduate Civil Engi- 
neer from the University of Vermont, his native state. Only ten 
copies are known to be in existence, of which this Society has 
two. Gift of Mrs. C. C. Spalding. 

Document — Original copy of "An Ordinance Abolishing Slavery in 
Missouri." Lithograph. 11 January, 1865. Gift of Mrs. Herbert 
S. Hadley. 

Handbill — Original of "The California Pony Express." This started 
from St. Joseph, Mo., at 11 p. m. every Saturday and advertised 
"only ten days to California." Gift of C. E, HoUebaugh. 

Reprint — Of the first fourteen editions of the "Evening and Morning 
Star," founded at Independence, Mo., June, 1832. This was the 
first paper printed in the county. Gift of Rev. Walter W. Smith, 
Historian of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. 



Gift of his daugh- 



Keltogg-Baxter Printing Co., 301 Admiral Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 




The Missouri Valley Historical Society, through the 
courtesy of the Board of Education, occupies the second 
floor of the Allen BrancM Library, Wyandotte Street and 
Westport Avenue. Here is maintained a Museum for the 
preservation of all material associated with the history of 
this locality, at the "Raw's Mouth," as the Indians and fur- 
traders designated the site oT Kansas City, at the junction 
of the Kaw and the Missouri. 

The collections of the Society include many articles, 
such as pictures, letters, documents, etc., relating to the 
early history of this City and vicinity. It has, fortunately, 
specialized in reminiscences of the early settlers, few of 
whom now remain. 

Books by local authors and of local history, documents, 
letters and personal relics of families who have helped in 
the development of this City and County are earnestly 
requested as gifts or loans. 

NETTIE THOMPSON GROVE, 

Secretary. 



HIS 9 74 



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